In the central Andes, complex civilizational processes and dramatic biophysical phenomena have concurred for thousands of years. The confluence of these cultural and natural forces implies that environmental disturbances should be neither overemphasized nor ignored but adequately included as a variable in the modeling of the cultural processes of the Andean prehistory. In this sense, it is justified to clarify why and how people from pre-Hispanic urban centers preferred to accept risk associated with disaster-prone settings and how they eventually developed social responses to biophysical hazards through centuries.Framed within this purpose, this dissertation takes as a case study the prehistoric urban center of Cajamarquilla (138 ha) located in a flood-prone sector on the arid Peruvian central coast, and occupied mainly but intermittently for a period of almost 800 years between ca. AD 650 and 1400 (from the Middle Horizon to the Late Intermediate Period). My research was built on the basis of theoretical and methodological contributions of the Historical Ecology, Anthropology of Disasters, and Environmental Archaeology. Thus, it included conventional archeological procedures, a geomorphological characterization of the study area, and archaeobotanical and geoarchaeological methods and techniques. Although a range of contexts were analyzed, the study of the hydraulic (first-order irrigation canals) and storage (underground silos) systems associated with the site were strongly emphasized. Results indicate that the interspersed occurrence of droughts and floods with phases of dynamic constructive activity in Cajamarquilla express a form of risk normalization. This included the maximum use of clay soils and the involvement of the site residents with planned abandonment processes, although apparently sudden final abandonment has also been documented. While it has been verified that occupational dynamics in Cajamarquilla were constantly constrained by regional eco-climatic conditions, these always responded simultaneously to the socio-political controls of each era, so that social responses were not only multifactorial in their origins but also multipurpose in their ends, an illustration of this being the thousands of bottle-shaped, capacious silos that characterize the site. This makes sense with the integrative culture-nature worldviews of the indigenous Andean societies. Finally, this investigation also finds that, beyond the common socio-environmental connotation noted above, social action in Cajamarquilla also shows substantial differences between its different cultural occupations when dealing with environmental determinants: Its earliest inhabitants carefully planned an ambitious technological equipment (canals and silos), while its later inhabitants were characterized by their marked sense of opportunism and pragmatism both in the use/readjustment of such inherited technologies and the rules of community life within the settlement. In general, beyond usual binary frames that oppose determinism versus possibilism, or collapse versus resilience, the case of Cajamarquilla raises the anthropological need for an integrative approach focused on how and to what extent cultural and natural forces intermingle in urban life.

Esta pesquisa aborda, a partir de uma perspectiva bioarqueológica comparativa, a problemática das mudanças nos padrões de subsistência associados à intensificação da agricultura e suas implicações no processo de complexificação social na costa dos Andes Centrais. Para tanto, se examinaram indicadores de patologia oral, estresse nutricional e isótopos estáveis, e outros dados paleodietéticos e arqueológicos de 09 populações pré-históricas da costa dos Andes Centrais datadas para o período Formativo (~3000-1 a.C.). Os resultados mostram que as dietas a predomínio de carboidratos são muito antigas na região, inclusive nos sítios litorâneos e que o processo de complexificação ocorreu em presença da agricultura como base econômica. As formações teocráticas do 3ro e 2do milênios a.C. floresceram baseadas na agricultura de tubérculos, leguminosas, árvores frutíferas e milho em menor quantidade (abaixo de 20%), apelando a técnicas agrícolas adaptadas às características de aridez dos vales da bacia do Pacífico. Uma drástica mudança na dieta costeira andina ocorreu entre 500-1 a.C., quando o milho passa ser o principal produto de subsistência ao nível regional em concomitância com o aparecimento de governos seculares. / From a comparative bioarchaeological perspective this research addresses the issue of changes in subsistence patterns associated with the intensification of agriculture on the coast of the Central Andes and their implications to the social complexity process. Markers of oral pathology and nutritional stress were examined, along with stable isotopes, and other paleodietetic and archaeological data of 09 prehistoric coastal populations dated to the Formative period (~3000-1 BC). The results show that the predominance of rich carbohydrate diets is very old in the region, also on shoreline settlements, and the process of complexity was based in agriculture as an economic basis. The theocratic societies of 3rd and 2nd millennium BC flourished based on agriculture of tubers, legumes, fruit trees and corn in smaller quantities (below 20%), using farming techniques highly adapted to the aridity of the Pacific basin valleys. A drastic change in the Andean coastal diet occurred between 500-1 BC, when the corn became the main regional staple concomitant to the appearance of secular governments

Esta pesquisa aborda, a partir de uma perspectiva bioarqueológica comparativa, a problemática das mudanças nos padrões de subsistência associados à intensificação da agricultura e suas implicações no processo de complexificação social na costa dos Andes Centrais. Para tanto, se examinaram indicadores de patologia oral, estresse nutricional e isótopos estáveis, e outros dados paleodietéticos e arqueológicos de 09 populações pré-históricas da costa dos Andes Centrais datadas para o período Formativo (~3000-1 a.C.). Os resultados mostram que as dietas a predomínio de carboidratos são muito antigas na região, inclusive nos sítios litorâneos e que o processo de complexificação ocorreu em presença da agricultura como base econômica. As formações teocráticas do 3ro e 2do milênios a.C. floresceram baseadas na agricultura de tubérculos, leguminosas, árvores frutíferas e milho em menor quantidade (abaixo de 20%), apelando a técnicas agrícolas adaptadas às características de aridez dos vales da bacia do Pacífico. Uma drástica mudança na dieta costeira andina ocorreu entre 500-1 a.C., quando o milho passa ser o principal produto de subsistência ao nível regional em concomitância com o aparecimento de governos seculares. / From a comparative bioarchaeological perspective this research addresses the issue of changes in subsistence patterns associated with the intensification of agriculture on the coast of the Central Andes and their implications to the social complexity process. Markers of oral pathology and nutritional stress were examined, along with stable isotopes, and other paleodietetic and archaeological data of 09 prehistoric coastal populations dated to the Formative period (~3000-1 BC). The results show that the predominance of rich carbohydrate diets is very old in the region, also on shoreline settlements, and the process of complexity was based in agriculture as an economic basis. The theocratic societies of 3rd and 2nd millennium BC flourished based on agriculture of tubers, legumes, fruit trees and corn in smaller quantities (below 20%), using farming techniques highly adapted to the aridity of the Pacific basin valleys. A drastic change in the Andean coastal diet occurred between 500-1 BC, when the corn became the main regional staple concomitant to the appearance of secular governments