The importance of being atacameno: Political identity and mortuary ceramics in northern Chile

While local residents of the important prehistoric trade center, San Pedro de Atacama (northern Chile), consumed diverse non-local ceramics in their graves, they also produced a distinct, homogeneous ceramic style— Negro Pulido—that changed little in its aesthetic from A.D. 300 to 900. This combination of uniform production with cosmopolitan consumption confronts the assumption that long periods of interaction changes ceramic style. I consider this conundrum through a conflictive model of political identity construction and a regional culture model. The first proposes that homogenous, salient identities develop in contexts of conflict or economic competition, as suggested by colonial and modern examples. The second, labeled a ‘social field’, sees cultures as regional systems consisting of different groups who co-occupy one area and engage in complex, long-term social relations. Here, Culture, Identity and Territory do not coincide into discrete isolated blocks.; First, I propose San Pedro inhabitants standardized their ceramic style to symbolize a newly unified community identity in response to political and economic pressure linked to the expansion of the highland polity, Tiwanaku. Second, I suggest that Tiwanaku was one of many regular participants in the growing trade network and that Negro Pulido developed as part of local processes linked to the development of regional integration. I use non-local mortuary ceramics from San Pedro in comparison with other sites to understand relative diversity in foreign ceramics, trace regional interaction though time, and assess the relative presence of Tiwanaku ceramics. I also employ statistical coefficients calculated on local vessels as a quantitative measure of metric vessel standardization which, when graphed, give a diachronic picture of ceramic homogenization.; Negro Pulido does not in fact increase in standardization with the increase of contact with Tiwanaku. Rather, it continues a trend of decreasing standards initiated 200 years. In addition, Tiwanaku ceramic presence is high when compared with other non-local styles, but never excessively. The evidence indicates that regional interactions increased throughout the period of contact with Tiwanaku. The social field model is supported, where cultural difference is maintained in contexts of regular and mundane interaction.