Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotope Analysis on Dietary Resilience Through Time on the Andean Altiplano
Open Access
- Author:
- Chen, Jennifer
- Graduate Program:
- Anthropology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- September 23, 2024
- Committee Members:
- Tim Ryan, Program Head/Chair
Sarah Ivory, Outside Unit & Field Member
Randy Haas, Special Member
Douglas Bird, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Jacob Holland-Lulewicz, Major Field Member
Rebecca Bliege Bird, Major Field Member - Keywords:
- anthropology
archaeology
South America
Andean Altiplano
stable isotopes
food and culture
cultural identity
diet
diet diversity
dietary resilience
early foragers
hunter gatherers
agropastoralism
Tiwanaku
Soro Mik'aya Patjxa
Wilamaya Patjxa
Archaic Period
Formative Period
Late Intermediate Period
tubers
camelids
breastfeeding and weaning
human behavioral ecology
paleoclimate
Lake Titicaca - Abstract:
- The South American Andes is one of the last places on Earth where early humans permanently occupy. Despite the semi-arid, harsh, high-altitude environment, contemporary Indigenous communities like the Aymara and Quechua continue to thrive, having developed genetic adaptations and cultural adaptations to combat hypobaric hypoxia, otherwise known as high altitude sickness. The Andean Altiplano is also home to many domesticated resources that include a wide variety of potatoes, quinoa, and camelids like alpacas and llamas. While many anthropological and archaeological narratives convey the significance of big game hunting, and therefore meat-heavy diets, this dissertation reveals that plant foods like geophytes played an important role in early human diets and early domestication of plant foods on the Andean Altiplano. I ask broadly: how does food shape cultural identity? Through the archaeometric use to look at stable isotopes, we are able to investigate many dietary patterns through time of different ancient populations ranging from the Archaic Period (9–3.5 ka BP) to the Post Tiwanaku Period (0.75–0.38ka BP). This dissertation uses stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopes to look at ancient diets on the Andean Altiplano and how diets may change over time. More specifically, this dissertation looks at Archaic Period (9–3.5 ka BP) early forager communities before the advent of agriculture, the Formative Period (3.5–1.5ka BP) and the onset of early domestication and agropastoral practices, the Tiwanaku Period (1.5–0.75ka BP) population where diet diversity is at its highest, and the Post Tiwanaku Period, or Late Intermediate Period (0.75–0.38ka BP) dispersed communities after the decline of the Tiwanaku state. This dissertation primarily focuses on two archaeological sites, Soro Mik’aya Patjxa and Wilamaya Patjxa, during the Archaic Period where humans permanently occupied the Andean highlands. While the first chapter focuses primarily on early forager diets before the advent of agriculture, the second chapter zooms into early childhood diets of these Archaic Period individuals where stable nitrogen isotopes are used to indicate breastfeeding and weaning times. The third chapter zooms out to observe dietary changes over time in conjunction with lake level changes of Lake Titicaca as a proxy for precipitation on the Andean Altiplano. Understanding early highland forager diets is crucial to also better understanding of how these early humans interacted with their environment and its resources. Results from this research suggest that despite the harsh high-altitude environment and variable paleoclimate, ancient diet remains relatively the same. The first chapter reveals that early foragers in the high Andes were mostly eating C3 plants like wild potatoes despite the ongoing, traditional narrative of hunting and eating mostly meat. The second chapter investigates the early childhood diets of these hunter-gatherers, speculating that a good contender for possible weaning foods were cooked and mashed wild tubers. The third chapter consists of Archaic Period individuals I have physically and chemically processed along with meta-data drawn from other isotopic studies of different cultural periods on the Altiplano that also reveal the resiliency of tubers and potatoes through chronological time as well as a shift towards meat-dominant diet despite variable lake level changes. The results from this dissertation project suggest a strong and resilient relationship between tubers and camelids and ancient people across time.