Overview

In this volume, the authors present an original ethnographic study of five llama herding communities in Ayacucho, Peru. Data on herd dynamics are subjected to computer modeling in an effort to evaluate the roles of biology, symbolic and ritual behavior, ecological adaptation, and practical reason. The book contains the most detailed study of the waytakuy llama marking ceremony yet available. The role of this ceremony in preventing herds from going to extinction is evaluated against anthropological and sociobiological theory. This is an interdisciplinary book will appeal to professional archaeologists, prehistorians, cultural anthropologists, Andeanists, theoretical biologists, evolutionary biologists, and zoologists interested in animal domestication.

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9781598747720

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Reviews

A fascinating glimpse into a way of life disrupted by political violence over the past decade...draws together rich chunks of disparate data to illuminate contemporary herd dynamics...effective integration of diverse empirical and historical data, as well as analytic methods supports the authors in modeling a reasonable explanation for dissemination and perpetuation of cultural practice. Lisa Markowitz, American Anthropologist

Author Information

Kent V. Flannery is the James B. Griffin Professor, Anthropology and the Curator of Environmental Archaeology, Museum of Anthropology at the University of Michigan.Joyce Marcus is Professor of Anthropology and Curator of Latin American Archaeology at the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.Robert Reynolds is a computer scientist at Wayne State University, who has assisted numerous archaeologists in developing computer simulations of the processes of cultural evolution. Some of the projects he's been involved with include the origins of agriculture in the Valley of Oaxaca and the origins of corn function at Gila Naquitz.

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