Embodied Identity: Plants, Social Meaning, and Belief Systems Among the Chiribaya

Embodied Identity will pioneer transdisciplinary archaeological research linking the humanities with the social, biological, and physical sciences. Transdisciplinary archaeological research typically bridges to the sciences rather than engaging humanities scholarship as the core driver, as we propose here.

Embodied Identity seeks to understand how people of the Andean Chiribaya culture (AD 900­1350) understood their own identity. Our point of departure is an early South Andean creation story, wherein the creator Viracocha established four markers of identity: dress, language, songs, and plants. All are inextricably linked, with dress and plants being materialized archaeologically. We will therefore begin by studying plant imagery in textiles,  archaeologically recovered plants, and the physical expression of activities related to textile production and agriculture. 

Buikstra, who excavated these materials (1989-1991) will coordinate data analysis, while Swanson, whose humanities perspective anchors this proposal, will integrate Andean ethnographic and ethnohistoric information as interpretations move forward.