Rethinking Andean and Amazonian Relations: The Taypi Yungas as Spaces of Encounter, Ethnogenesis and Sociopolitical Transformation

Sonia Alconini, PhD, University of Virginia

The eastern tropical mountains, whether conceived as the yungas, piedmont or ceja de selva, were part of the massive Cordillera spine that run through a sizable portion of South America. It divided the Andes from the Amazonian basin. Even though it is often conceived as a natural barrier or strategic filter, it was also the axis that made possible Andean and Amazonian relations. They were known as the taypi yunga and chaupi yunga, both embodying concepts of centrality. In this presentation Dr. Alconini explores the critical role that ancient trading corridors had in the cultural interregional dynamics. Since antiquity, peoples of different ethnic origins, languages and cultural traditions converged, dwelled and established kindred relations along these interethnic corridors. By zooming in one of these corridors that run to the east of the Titicaca basin in the provinces of the Kallawayas and Chunchos, our speaker highlights the changes in the sociopolitical dynamics, and the forms in which altiplanic valley and Arawak-speaking communities, among others, were articulated into these networks.

Sonia Alconini (David A. Harrison III Professor of Archaeology) teaches in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Virginia. Originally from Bolivia, she has conducted archaeological research in different parts of the Andean region and the eastern tropical regions. Multidisciplinary in nature, her research focuses on the nature of frontier interaction, Inka imperialism, and local agency. She has published several articles and books in English and Spanish, including the Oxford Handbook of the Incas (University of Oxford Press, 2018 co-edited with Alan Covey), Southeastern Inka Frontiers: Boundaries and Interaction (University of Florida Press, 2016), and Entre la Vertiente Tropical y los Valles: Sociedades Regionales e Interacción Prehispánicas en los Andes Centro-Sur (Plural Editorial, 2016). Her current research project is in the Inka center of Samaipata (Santa Cruz-Bolivia).

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