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278 I C U R R E N T ANTHROPOLOGY
TABLE I
Skeletal Samples Included in the Study
Absolute Dating
the prehistory of the Atacama Desert (Larsen 1987). is statistically significant (table 3). This pattern is con-
First we simply compared the means of adjacent pairs of sistent with the fact that males are more susceptible to
periods, and second we determined the degree of sexual variations in nutrition than females. In short, we can
dimorphism within each period. The second strategy is say that during the Tiwanalzu period the Atacamenean
justified by the fact that body variables are sexually di- population experienced a significant increase in stature,
morphic under good nutritional conditions (Frayer and for males about 3 %.
Wolpoff 1985). Females show better growth canaliza- We found a similar trend when the pattern of sexual
tion than men and for this reason are less susceptible dimorphism was investigated. As can be seen in table 4,
to nutritional stresses (Tanner 1962; Stini 1969, 1982, there is significant sexual dimorphism during all three
1985). Consequently, nutritional stresses affect physi- periods, but whereas during the Pre-Tiwanalzu period
cal growth and development in males more than in fe- males were 7.0% bigger than females, this difference in-
males, reducing sexual anthropometric differences in a creased to 8.6% during the Tiwanaku and dropped again
population (see Stinson 1985 for a review and a different to 6.5 % during the Post-Tiwanalzu.
opinion). For this reason, an assessment of sexual di- Was the increase in adult male stature during the Ti-
morphism for body proportions can also be used as an wanaku period the result of a generalized improvement
indicator of the standard of living of a population (To- in nutritional status of the whole population, or was it
bias 1962, 1972; Frayer and Wolpoff 1985; Larsen 1987; restricted to certain individuals pertaining to a defined
Baffi and Cocilovo 1989; Pucciarelli et al. 1993). elite? Although an absolute answer to this question can
We examined skeletal samples representing three pe- never be obtained, the problem can be tackled by com-
riods of the local prehistory: Pre-Tiwanalzu, Tiwanalzu, paring the variation of femur length among males in the
and Post-Tiwanalzu (Pre-Inca) (table I ) . Although the three periods analyzed. From the coefficients of varia-
samples are rather small, they represent the totality of tion in table 2 it is apparent that the Tiwanalzu period
skeletons for which cranial and postcranial material are does not show any increase in variation compared with
available. the other periods. This means that, at least when it is
As can be seen in table 2 and figure I, there is a compared with the two other periods, the data do not
tendency for femur length to increase from the Pre- support the hypothesis of a concentration of health in a
Tiwanaku to the Tiwanalzu period and to decrease from few individuals during Tiwanalzu times. Assuming that
the Tiwanalzu to the Post-Tiwanalzu. Although this the cemeteries studied are representative of the Ataca-
happens with both sexes, only the difference fo; males menean population during the periods under analysis, it
TABLE 2
Descriptive Statistics for Femur Lengths b y T i m e Period
Femur Length
Standard Coefficient of
Period N Mean Deviation Variation (%I Range
Pre-Tiwanalzu
Males 14 415.28 13.76 3.31 397-437
Females 11 387.82 15.62 4.03 355-421
Tiwanalzu
Males 16 427.69 17.48 4.09 404-462
Females 18 393.67 17.15 4.36 361-429
Post-Tiwanaku
Males 21 413.14 24.37 5.90 371-450
Females 36 387.92 17.67 4.55 350-430
TABLE 3 TABLE 4
Values of Student's T Tests between Adjacent Periods Values of Student's T Test between
(Males and Females) Sexes within Periods
Tiwanalzu
Tiwanaku Males Females
seems there was a general improvement in standard of nalzu empire: A view from the heartland. American Antiquity
living in the Atacama Desert between A.D. 400 and goo. 5 11748-62
-----. 1991. The technology and organization of agricultural pro-
We still know very little about the details of the rela- duction in the Tiwanalzu state. Latin American Antiquity 2:
tionships between the core of the Tiwanalzu empire and 99-125.
its peripheries (Oakland 1992, Kolata 1993). Even for . 1993. The Tiwanaku: Portrait of an Andean civilization.
the heartland of the empire, specialists still differ as to Oxford: Blacltwell.
L A R S E N , C . S . 1987. Bioarchaeological interpretations of subsis-
how the central power involved and incorporated local tence economy and behavior from human skeletal remains. Ad-
polities in higher-order political structures. Kolata vances i n Archaeological Method and Theory 10:339-445.
(1986, 1991)~for instance, envisions a highly centralized L E P A I G E , G . 1965. Sun Pedro de Atacama y su zona. Anales
bureaucracy that constituted a managerial level be- de la Universidad del Norte 4.
L L A G O S T E R A , A , , A N D M . A . C O S T A . 1984 Muse0 Arqueo-
yond that of locally autonomous villages. In contrast, logico R. P. Gustavo Le Paige, Sun Pedro de Atacama. De-
Albarracin-Jordan (1996) sees a more independent life partamento de Extension Cultural, Ministerio de Educacion, Se-
for the villages, which were incorporated into the em- rie Patrimonio Cultural Chileno.
pire through what he calls "integrated nested hierar- L L A G O S T E R A , A , , C . M . T O R R E S , A N D M . A . C O S T A . 1988.
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aged and coordinated by the local administration and M C L A R E N , D . Editor. 1976. Nutrition i n the community. Lon-
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that provided a common language among the different ties from infancy through adolescence. American Journal of
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M A R T O R E L L , R . 1982. Nutrition and health status indicators.
gardless of how the Atacamenean population articu- Washington, D.C.: World Bank.
lated with the higher-order political structure of Tiwa- N E V E S , W . A , , M . A . C O S T A , K . S A L M , A N D R. G .
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former derived from the relationship. de Atacama: Trauma e tens50 social. Paper presented at the
4th Congress of Latin American Association of Biological An-
thropology, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
N U N E Z , L . 1992. Cultura y conflito en los oasis de Sun Pedro
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