book chapter
The decline and fall of Tiwanaku
Tiwanaku : portrait of an Andean civilization • Cambridge, England • Published In 1993 • Pages: 282-302
By: Kolata, Alan L..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This document, which establishes the cultural background for the subsequent Aymara kingdom period (1100 A.D. - early 1600s), presents a detailed study of the collapse of the Tiwanaku empire as seen through the lens of its agricultural history. Basing his analysis on a variety of new ecological data, Kolata describes the political decline of the empire as the result of the break-down and eventual abandonment of its regional scale agricultural systems.due in large part to '…hemispheric change in climatic conditions that shrank the always narrow environmental margin for effective agricultue in the Andean high plateau to the point at which surplus production became impossible. Under the burden of a deteriorating economic base, the overarching political structure of the empire fragmented, and the complex set of elite statuses that had evolved over the centuries of Tiwanaku domination of the south-central Andes was shattered' (p. 283).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Climate
- Functional and adaptational interpretations
- Tillage
- Water supply
- Territorial hierarchy
- Disasters
- traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Aymara Kingdoms
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- South America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Central Andes
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- book chapter
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Archaeologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- NotesAdditional notes
- Alan Kolata
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 303-311)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 92039248
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Indians of South America--Antiquities