Sunday Speaker: Brewing in the Ancient Andes – Dr. Kirk Costion

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

Description:

Brewing is an ancient practice in the Andes that has been an integral part of Andean cultures for thousands of years dating back to as early as 5000 BC. Traditionally fermented beverages played key roles in both informal community gatherings and more formal political events. The communal consumption of such beverages often helped to foster a sense of collective belonging in ancient communities. Additionally, the production and serving of fermented beverages could also function as potent pathway to gain, legitimize, and maintain political power. In the Andes the term chicha is used to describe beer-like fermented beverages that can be produced from a wide array of products, although the most common type of chicha was produced from maize and is known as chicha de jora. In this talk I will discuss the production process for brewing chicha de jora and how it compares to the production of another type of chicha produced from the Peruvian pink pepper berry known as chicha de molle. We will also explore how archaeologists use a variety of evidence to identify chicha production and consumption in the past using case studies dating 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 source of political power and compare this to how the contemporary Tiwanaku culture consumed chicha. I will conclude by reviewing details from my excavations at the Moquegua Valley site of Yahuay Alta were evidence of chicha de molle production gave us insight into how a local Huaracane community persisted in the face of Wari colonization during the Middle Horizon.

Bio:

Kirk Costion is an Anthropology Faculty member at Mesa Community College specializing in anthropological archaeology and teaches MCC’s archaeology courses. He went to graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh and his dissertation research took place in the Moquegua Valley of southern Peru focusing on the local small-scale village society known as the Huaracane. Specifically, he investigated Huaracane household and community organization and how the colonization of the Moquegua Valley during the early Middle Horizon (circa AD 600 – 800) impacted Huaracane culture. In the Andes his research interests include the variation and effects of colonial strategies in the periphery of expansive state societies and reactions by local populations and how society-wide changes, such as colonization by an outside power impact community and household level organization. In recent years he has also been collaborating with a colleague on the development of graphic models to better analyze and understand ancient cross-cultural interactions. Locally in Arizona Kirk’s research with MCC students focuses on disposal patterns of domestic refuse and debris associated with ritual activities at an early transitional Classic Period Hohokam disposal context and what these patterns can tell us about household and domestic organization on the margins of one of the largest known Classic Period Ancestral O’odham settlements, Sche:dag Mu:val Va'aki (O’odham for Blue Fly’s House) (formerly known as Mesa Grande).

Please Note:
Doors open at 9:00 am for optional buffet breakfast ($10 donation) and socializing. Speaker program begins at 10:00 am.

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