Drink, Power, and Society in the Andes

6 You Are What You Drink: A Sociocultural Reconstruction of Pre-Hispanic Fermented Beverage Use at Cerro Baúl, Moquegua, Peru

6 You Are What You Drink A Sociocultural Reconstruction of Pre-Hispanic Fermented Beverage Use at Cerro Baúl, Moquegua, Peru David J. Goldstein, Robin C. Coleman Goldstein, and Patrick R. Williams When you talk about chicha it is important to specify the kind as the word chicha was used by the Spaniards to describe both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, many of which are made from a vast variety of plants prepared in distinct ways. —Cutler and Cárdenas (1947: 33) The ethnobotanical and ethnohistorical record of the Andes is replete with examples of fermented beverages made from a large number of grains and fruits. As Cutler and Cárdenas observe, the Spaniards recognized that there were many different kinds of chicha. Andean anthropology and archaeology , however, often focus largely on beer made from Zea mays (maize, or corn). There is no doubt that maize beer was central to Inca culture and remains important today throughout portions of this region. This emphasis on maize beer nonetheless neglects beverages made from other grains, such as Chenopodium quinoa (quinoa), Amaranthus caudatus (kiwicha), and fruits that also have been essential to Andean society. The production and consumption patterns of fermented beverages varied in space and time across a landscape that was far more multilingual, multiethnic, and multicultural before the Columbian encounter. Since fermented beverages continue to play a significant role in daily consumption, small-scale ritual, and scheduled religious and agricultural festivals in the Andes, we can look at differences in the use and production of these drinks D. J. Goldstein, R. C. Coleman Goldstein, and P. R. Williams 134 as potentially distinct ethnic markers in the Andean past. The choice of a particular beverage was dependent in part on regional resource availability and gustatory preference, and these choices helped to shape the historical trajectories of Andean cultures. We suggest that archaeologists have yet to offer a sufficiently nuanced interpretation of fermented beverages at an archaeological site. Spatial and temporal components of alcohol consumption and production, coupled with ethnohistorical and ethnographic evidence, may serve as keys for understanding cultural preference and, potentially, for deciphering issues of identity and ethnicity in the archaeological record. Like other authors in this book (see Hayashida, this volume), we examine chicha consumption within a single historical and spatial context. Instead of ascribing modern Figure 6.1. The Osmore Drainage, Peru. Map by Patrick R. Williams. Pre-Hispanic Fermented Beverage Use at Cerro Baúl, Peru 135 or colonial meanings associated with the production of similar beverages to our interpretations of a pre-Hispanic brewery context, we stress the significance of associating the consumption of a single beverage with a single place, time, and people. In this case study, we look at the use of fermented beverages in the Middle Horizon (ad 500–1000) Wari imperial state at Cerro Baúl, Peru (Fig. 6.1). Over nine years of excavation in the Upper Moquegua River drainage, our research focused on the Middle Horizon settlements on Cerro Mejía and Cerro Baúl, as well as surrounding areas. The most recent seasons have recovered elite Wari contexts at Cerro Baúl with evidence of a variety of scales and kinds of fermented beverage production. Instead of fermented beverages made from corn, evidence indicates that the fruits from the Schinus molle L. (Anacardiaceae) tree were used to brew most of the beer consumed at the site. In this chapter, we trace the production and consumption of beverages made from molle and other fruits and grains through Middle Horizon excavation contexts in the Upper Moquegua Valley. Our approach teases out the complexities of the roles that fermented beverages played in this Middle Horizon society and interprets their use as more than aides for interpreting reciprocal labor arrangements and political power. We begin our discussion by looking at the diversity of Andean fermented beverages in the colonial period and the present. After examining the relationship between food preferences and identity, we look at the centrality of fermented beverages produced from sources other than corn at Cerro Baúl. We explore the potential for the use of other kinds of grains—kiwicha and quinoa—for fermented beverage production within different settings at the site and then examine the use of molle drinks. In conclusion, we discuss the significance of the molle data with regard to how fermented beverage production is interpreted at other pre-Hispanic sites in the Andes. Chicha: Defining...