The Economic Organization of Early Camelid Pastoralism in the Andean Highlands of Bolivia

The domestication of South American camelids (llamas and alpacas) transformed the use of the Andean landscape. In the central altiplano of Bolivia, during the Formative Period (1500 BC – AD 500) a cultural complex known as Wankarani developed. This book discusses the development of early camelid pastoralism by testing a set of hypotheses related to Wankarani economic organization. In contrast with previous ideas which stressed the emergence of sedentary agricultural villages in this region, settlement patterns, site layouts and faunal remains analyses demonstrate the continuing importance of mobile pastoralism, coupled with other subsistence strategies such as hunting, fishing and cultivation.