Postmarital residence was explored by calculating and bootstrapping the ratio of male‐to‐female mean pairwise differences (MPD) at the within‐group level. Biological distances between burial groups were calculated using the Mean Measure of Divergence (MMD) statistic. This study examines patterns of phenotypic variation to: (1) evaluate if open sepulchers were organized on the basis of biological relatedness, and (2) explore if sex‐specific phenotypic variability conforms to models of postmarital residence.Ĭranial nonmetric traits were recorded in five skeletal samples from two cemeteries in the Colca Valley, Peru. However, the biosocial dimensions of these mortuary practices, and their implications for conflict and alliance formation, remain unexplored. In the Late Intermediate Period Andes (AD 1100–1450), the proliferation of above‐ground sepulchers reconfigured social boundaries within and between communities engaged in protracted conflict. To explain the findings, we discuss the quadripartition principle, a notion of Andean cosmology related to gender perception, which may have contributed to defining the shapes of heads during the Paracas Cavernas period. All ICM types are evenly distributed among the status groups without obvious patterns of ICM frequency among burial spaces.
Although Tabular Erect was the most frequent type of ICM in the entire sample (60%), the Bilobate type was significantly more frequent in females (34%) than in males (19%). The results demonstrate that nearly all individuals (98%) presented with ICM. The cranial shape of 159 individuals (137 adults and 22 non-adults) was described and classified using non-metric parameters. Thus, the current study explores whether the types of ICM during the Paracas Cavernas period (550–200 cal BC) in Cerro Colorado were signs of identity based on sex, social status, or kinship. Since the pioneering descriptions of the ICM in the Paracas Peninsula skulls (South-Central Coast of Peru), studies have suggested the association between the type of ICM and sex. Intentional cranial modification (ICM) was a cultural practice followed by many ancient groups across the world with considerable geographic and temporal variability. In describing what happened in Quilcapampa, we highlight the need for a better understanding of the myriad ways that Andean peoples used mortuary customs to structure the lives of the living during a period of population movements and climate change. An ayllu organization that made ancestral claims to specific resources was poorly suited to these conditions, and the site's inhabitants instead seem to have organized themselves around the ruins of Quilcapampa's earlier occupation. After a long hiatus, the site was reoccupied and quickly expanded through local population aggregation and highland migrations. This article documents conditions under which these closed tombs were used at the site of Quilcapampa on the coastal plain of southern Peru, allowing an exploration into the ways that funerary traditions were employed to both reflect and generate community affiliation, ideals about sociopolitical organization, and land rights. Chullpas, however, were rarer on the coast, with the dead often buried individually in closed tombs. The Late Intermediate period in the south-central Andes is known for the widespread use of open sepulchres called chullpas by descent-based ayllus to claim rights to resources and express idealized notions of how society should be organized.