The Central Andes
Anthropology 508
Monday - Friday 1:00 - 3:00 107 Fraser Hall
The University of Kansas, Lawrence
Instructor: John W. Hoopes Email: hoopes@ukans.edu
Office: 629 Fraser Hall Phone: (785) 864-2638 Fax: (785) 864-5224
Office Hours: Monday - Friday 3:00 - 4:00
Last Updated: 07/26/99
Course Description
The Central Andes is a region of fantastic environmental extremes. Stretching along the western portion of South America from Colombia and Ecuador in the north to Bolivia, Chile, and northwestern Argentina in the south, it includes portions of the world's driest deserts and wettest rain forests as well as some of the richest fisheries and broadest high-altitude grasslands. This land of extremes was also home to a rich tradition of indigenous cultural development, from time of the initial Paleoindian up to today.
This course will examine the patterns of development of Andean culture from its earliest roots up until the Spanish conquest, looking at how this unique environment gave birth to highly efficient adaptations and cultural systems. We will look not only at the vibrant Inka civilization, which occupied much of this region until the mid-16th century, but at its predecessors. Among these were monumental preceramic cultures of both the coast and highlands and the dynamic cultures of Chavín, Paracas, Nazca, Moche, Huari, Tiwanaku, Chimú, and Inka.
Except for the Chimú and Inka, historical documentation of these cultures is practically nonexistent. Understanding prehistoric societies requires us to rely heavily upon the remains of material culture. For this reason, the course will emphasize the archaeological record. We will use architecture, pottery, textiles, metalwork, and other materials to reconstruct a world that has all but disappeared. These objects, together with the information that remains of historical cultures, allow us to reconstruct the rise and fall of religious movements, cities, and empires.
The last part of the course will focus in detail on the rise, spread, and decline of the Inka empire, a civilization that in many ways incorporated all of the achievements of the cultures which preceded it. We will look at the Inka through both the historical and archaeological record, looking at how various methodologies of archaeological and historical investigation help to form our picture of this native New World state.
The problems encountered by ancient peoples of the Central Andes and the innovative solutions that they devised can provide us with valuable models for approaching contemporary world issues. It is hoped that by studying them we can learn more about ourselves.
Course Requirements
Final grades for the course will be based on a short written assignment (10%), a midterm examination (20%), a 15-20 page research paper (35%), and a final exam (35%). Term paper topics must be approved by the instructor in advance; however, they may be based on any aspect of the course material. Detailed instructions for the short assignment and the termpaper will be handed out in class.
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