Sunday Speaker Topic: Brewing in the Ancient Andes: Chicha\, Feasti ng\, & Politics During the Middle Horizon (AD 600 – 1000)

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Description:\n
Brewing is an ancient practice in the Ande s that has been an integral part of Andean culture s for thousands of years dating back to as early a s 5000 BC. Traditionally fermented beverages playe d key roles in both informal community gatherings and more formal political events. The communal con sumption of such beverages often helped to foster a sense of collective belonging in ancient communi ties. Additionally\, the production and serving of fermented beverages could also function as potent pathway to gain\, legitimize\, and maintain polit ical power. In the Andes the term chicha is used t o describe beer-like fermented beverages that can be produced from a wide array of products\, althou gh the most common type of chicha was produced fro m maize and is known as chicha de jora. In this ta lk I will discuss the production process for brewi ng chicha de jora and how it compares to the produ ction of another type of chicha produced from the Peruvian pink pepper berry known as chicha de moll e. We will also explore how archaeologists use a v ariety of evidence to identify chicha production a nd consumption in the past using case studies dati ng to the Middle Horizon in southern Peru circa AD 600 – 1000. In particular we will look at how the Wari Empire utilized specific varieties of chicha \, along with some interesting additives\, as a so urce of political power and compare this to how th e contemporary Tiwanaku culture consumed chicha. I will conclude by reviewing details from my excava tions at the Moquegua Valley site of Yahuay Alta w ere evidence of chicha de molle production gave us insight into how a local Huaracane community pers isted in the face of Wari colonization during the Middle Horizon.
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Bio:
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Kirk Costion is an Anthropology F aculty member at Mesa Community College specializi ng in anthropological archaeology and teaches MCC’ s archaeology courses. He went to graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh and his dissertati on research took place in the Moquegua Valley of s outhern Peru focusing on the local small-scale vil lage society known as the Huaracane. Specifically\ , he investigated Huaracane household and communit y organization and how the colonization of the Moq uegua Valley during the early Middle Horizon (circ a AD 600 – 800) impacted Huaracane culture. In the Andes his research interests include the variatio n and effects of colonial strategies in the periph ery of expansive state societies and reactions by local populations and how society-wide changes\, s uch as colonization by an outside power impact com munity and household level organization. In recent years he has also been collaborating with a colle ague on the development of graphic models to bette r analyze and understand ancient cross-cultural in teractions. Locally in Arizona Kirk’s research wit h MCC students focuses on disposal patterns of dom estic refuse and debris associated with ritual act ivities at an early transitional Classic Period Ho hokam disposal context and what these patterns can tell us about household and domestic organization on the margins of one of the largest known Classi c Period Ancestral O’odham settlements\, Sche:dag Mu:val Va'aki (O’odham for Blue Fly’s House) (form erly known as Mesa Grande).
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Please Note:
Doors o pen at 9:00 am for optio nal buffet breakfast ($10 donation) and socializin g. Speaker program begins at 10:00 am.
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Important: $10 breakfast fee waived for awesome humans bringing in food to share!
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