Tracing Childhood: Bioarchaeological Investigations of Early Lives in Antiquity

12. Tracing Tiwanaku Childhoods: A Bioarchaeological Study of Age and Social Identities in Tiwanaku Society

12 Tracing Tiwanaku Childhoods A Bioarchaeological Study of Age and Social Identities in Tiwanaku Society Deborah E. Blom and Kelly J. Knudson A wealth of publications focused on childhood in the past within the last five years attests both to a scholarly interest on ancient childhoods and a realization that our understanding of the past is incomplete if we ignore approximately half of society (e.g., Ardren and Hutson 2006; Baxter 2006; Dommasnes and Wrigglesworth 2008; Halcrow and Tayles 2008). In the Americas, ancient childhoods have been addressed by various researchers (e.g., Ardren and Hutson 2006), but relatively few studies have focused on the Andes in general and specifically in the field of bioarchaeology. Andean bioarchaeologists have examined health, cranial modification practices , and paleomobility in the first years of life (Blom et al. 2005; Farnum 2002; Hoshower et al. 1995; Klaus and Tam 2009; Knudson and Blom 2009; Knudson and Torres-Rouff 2009; Pechenkina and Delgado 2006; TorresRouff 2002). However, childhood has not been the focus of these studies, and the few publications specifically on juveniles restrict their focus to specialized contexts involving sacrifice and/or trophy heads (e.g., Andrushko et al. 2011; Bourget 2001; Reinhard and Ceruti 2005; Tung and Knudson 2010). In this chapter, we seek to fill the gap in studies of ancient Andean childhoods by incorporating age identities into our previous bioarchaeological and biogeochemical research into the formation of social identities in the Tiwanaku polity, which dominated the South Central Andes from c. AD 500 to AD 1150. In this chapter, we first discuss our general theoretical approach to concepts of childhood in the Andes, using the ethnographic and ethnohistoric record to outline significant issues in early childhood that A Bioarchaeological Study of Age and Social Identities in Tiwanaku Society · 229 can be addressed through bioarchaeological data. We then briefly present our study area from Tiwanaku contexts in the South Central Andes. By expanding on our previous data, we investigate past Andean concepts of childhood with a focus on the development of and intersections between gender, age, residence, and community identities. In doing so, we illustrate how reframing data on Tiwanaku childrearing practices, social identities, and residential mobility can address the experience of Tiwanaku childhoods and begin to shed light on how childhood was constructed for individuals within Tiwanaku society. We finish with a discussion of directions for ongoing research on Tiwanaku childhoods and in the ancient Andes in general. Theoretical Background on Social Constructs of Andean Childhoods Theoretical frameworks that recognize concepts of “child” and “childhood” as culturally and historically contingent (Ariès 1962; Lancy 2008; Montgomery 2009) have revolutionized archaeological studies of children (e.g., Baxter 2006; Joyce 2000; Kamp 2001) but have yet to be fully applied in the Andes. Careful use of the ethnographic and ethnohistoric record through appropriate analogy (e.g., Binford 1968; Watson et al. 1971; Wylie 1985) can provide valuable perspectives on Andean age and gender identities, which are in turn useful to bioarchaeologists interested in social identities more broadly. However, ethnohistoric data are passed through a filter of Spanish conquerors, and ethnographies may inadvertently and incorrectly represent rural Andean populations as static and homogenous (Jamieson 2005; Starn 1991; Weismantel 1991). With this in mind, we note that, in the Andes, ethnohistorical sources provide information on the activities of children of various ages and on age constructs or “grades” used by the Quechuaspeaking Inka as well as Aymara-speaking groups (e.g., de Castro and de Ortega Morejón [1558] 1936: 238; de Santillán [1563] 1879: 19–21; Guaman Poma de Ayala [1615] 1936: 193–234). Ethnographic sources on Aymaraand Quechua-speaking communities also provide information about social age categories and gender identities in the Andes (e.g., Allen 2002; Bolin 2006; Canessa 2000b; Harris 1980). Andean ethnographic and ethnohistoric sources indicate that two events transform presocial/“wild” fetal and infant beings into social persons (Canessa 2000b; Graham 1999: 17; Greenway 1998; Harris 1980). Historically and today, the transition from fetus to baby (wawa) takes place most prominently not at birth but during a naming ceremony (Allen 2002; Bolin 2006: 230 · D. E. Blom and K. J. Knudson 27–28; Canessa 2000b; Harris 1980) and/or with the first haircut (rutucha), usually performed when a child has a full head of hair (Allen 2002: 69; Canessa 2000a: 134). The hair-cutting ceremony, the time at which gender identities are often assigned, takes place in...