Subsistence and Demography: An Example of Interaction from Prehistoric Peru

Author(s): M. Edward Moseley

Source: Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Spring, 1972), pp. 25-49
Published by: University of New Mexico
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3629442
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Subsistence and Demography: an Example of Interaction
from Prehistoric Peru
M. EDWARDMOSELEY

A series of basic changes in subsistence patterns affected the prehistoric population

of the Peruvian desert coast. A shift from hunting-gathering to fishing and then to
farming called for the exploitation of new and different resource complexes. After
examining the nature of these complexes and reviewing the archaeological record
of the Ancon-Chillon area of the coast, the problems and consequences of bringing
a consumer population together with new resources of differing characteristics are
investigated. Evidence for the existence of jural rights governing resource use is
discussed. Demographic growth is then put forward as a significant factor con-
tributing to the change in subsistence patterns that transpired in the Ancon-Chillon
area.

W ITHIN A SPAN OF ONE AND A HALF MILLENNIA, prehistoric

societies in coastal Peru underwent rapid and fundamental economic
change. A hunting and gathering way of life was replaced by fishing and
littoral collecting, which in turn was displaced by farming. These events
took place between 3000 and 1500 B.C. Because the changes were rapid,
carried wide consequences, and took place in an area with optimal ar-
chaeological preservation, their study is useful in generating new ideas about
prehistoric economic activity. This paper examines certain ramifications of
the shifts in food resources and suggests which consequences may, in turn,
have contributed to furthering the process of economic alteration. Specif-
ically, I intend to examine the Ancon-Chillon area of coastal Peru in terms
of subsistence logistics-how resources and consumer are brought together-
and to review the role of resource access and demographic growth as factors
in a process of autogenous economic change.
THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
The Ancon-Chillon area is a 25 kilometer strip of barren desert. It
stretches along the Pacific coast from the southern margin of the Rio Chillon
north to the large sheltered bay of Ancon. Arid foothills of the Andes rise
from 10 to 20 kilometers behind the sea, thus making the desert coastal plain
a relatively narrow corridor.
Reconstructing man's economic adjustment to the area is based upon
understanding how his technology and labor organization defined and in-
teracted with natural resources inherent in the environment. A convenient
approach to perceiving the nature of the economic environment is to index
the resources, or resource complexes, that were exploited and to note the
technology and labor requisites that made each useful and productive.
25

VOL.28,1972
26 SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY

There are five general resource complexes that came under intensive
exploitation during the period of accelerated economic change. The com-
plexes tend to be localized in spatially distinct zones. Zonation is a product
of the sharp local topographic relief and the extreme aridity of the desert.
Each zone or complex of resources can be subdivided; yet, because each as a
whole called for specific exploitational patterns, it is useful to maintain
their integrity. Two of the major resource zones pertain to coastal areas, and
three to terrestrial environment.

1) The River. The Rio Chillon is an intermittent stream watered by runoff from
the Andes. It carries a maximum flow during the first months of each year, peaking
in February or March. The waters then recede, and between July and November
the rivermouth is often dry. The Chillon is degrading, and the erosional regime has
entrenched the river in a narrow course bounded by high banks. This results in a
relatively sharply defined micro-environment.
The flora and fauna of the area were resources utilized in the past. Indigenous
wild plants supplied fiber, wood, and some edible products. Wildlife was also im-
portant; crustaceans, reptiles, small mammals, and occasional deer were probably of
economic significance. These resources could be exploited on an individual or small
group basis with simple hunting gear, digging sticks, and cutting devices.
The arable soils of the floodplain, inundated seasonally by the river, wvere a
significant resource. These lands could be exploited by floodwater farming either on
an individual or small group basis. The technological prerequisites were of two types:
digging sticks or earth moving devices, and cultivable plants. Because neither cul-
tivated plants nor their wild progenitors were indigenous to the area, floodwater
farming was impossible until cultigens had been introduced from outside sources. In
other words, farming was impossible until suitable plants were on hand, and the
opening of the river plain as an agricultural area was therefore dependent upon
foreign introductions.
2) The Desert. The Peruvian coast is one of the driest places on earth, and the
lack of rainfall left the desert with but two major resources of basic importance to
the early inhabitants. The first was Tillandsia sp., a small xerophytic plant that pro-
vided fuel for fire. The second resource was arable land. Successful utilization of the
desert demanded both the digging implements and the cultivable plants needed for
floodwater farming. It also called for a moderately sophisticated water management
technology. This depended upon two elements. The first was a canal distributing
system to disperse water across the landscape. The second element was a lead-off
system to raise the water out of the entrenched rivers and on to the desert where it
could enter a distributing system. Elevating the water required canals beginning at
the river, crossing the flood plain, cutting along the banks and cliffs of the entrenched
system, and then swinging out into the desert. For deeply incised stretches of the
lower Chillon, lead-off systems must be from two to seven kilometers in length.
If it had been possible to simply divert river water on to the desert, small scale
irrigation would have been possible without much labor commitment. However,
 SUBSISTENCE AND DEMOGRAPHY: PREHISTORIC PERU 27

the necessity of long lead-off systems demanded a relatively large labor expenditure
if the arable desert soils were to be utilized.
3) The Lomas. The coastal temperature regime is highly uniform with an annual
variation of less than 10?F. There are but two seasons: a sunny period between De-
cember and March, and a foggy period between June and October. During the latter
season, fog dependent lomas vegetation appears in some isolated zones. The plants
grow on certain hills or ridges situated within a few kilometers of the sea, where
abrupt orographical uplifting of the fog laden sea breezes allows for limited precipi-
tation. For a few months these zones support a diverse flora visually reminiscent of
springtime wildflower beds found in temperate forests.
At one time the lomas vegetation was exploited for grass or sage-like plants that
produced edible seeds and for the cameloids and deer that foraged on the plants. A
basic hunting and gathering technology was sufficient for the utilization of these
resources, and they were exploited on an individual or small group level of labor.
4) The Sandy Littoral. The Peruvian coastal waters support one of the world's
richest biomasses. Along stretches of sand beaches there are edible shore birds, and
currents wash up drift wood as well as dead sea mammals and large fish, which were
once utilized. In the intertidal zone and just beyond there were once vast beds of clams.
Comestible algae as well as small fish exist in near-shore waters, and larger fish
are found in the deeper neritic zone.
The technological prerequisites for exploiting the sandy littoral were variable.
Many items, such as mollusks, could be gathered on an individual basis. Birds might
be taken with simple weaponry. Small float nets, manned by a few individuals, were
used for near-shore fishing. Angling was impractical because the surf breaks well out
from the shore and it is difficult to cast a hook and line beyond the breakers. To
pass beyond the surf and utilize resources of the neritic zone required watercraft.
5) The Rocky Littoral. The richest of all local economic zones is the rocky
littoral. Sea fowl and sea mammals have their roosts and rookeries in rocky areas.
The invertebrate and molluskan fauna, as well as the aquatic flora, is diverse and
abundant in the intertidal and subtidal areas. The deep plunging shore lines bring
fish of the neritic zone into close proximity.
Much of the flora and invertebrate fauna of the rocky littoral could be collected on
an individual basis. Birds and mammals could be taken in their rookeries without an
elaborate technology or complex labor organization. Angling was the basic means of
exploiting the piscine resources. The rough surf made net fishing dangerous and im-
practical. Watercraft were required to make use of resources beyond the immediate
shore line.
Of the five resource complexes, the littoral zones have by far the richest
and most diverse biomass and one easily exploited. In comparison, the lomas
and river zones have only a moderately rich flora and fauna, but these were
easily exploited resources. The desert holds an impoverished biomass, but
the zone is one of great economic potential when cultivated. Yet, the tech-
nological prerequisites for farming were considerable. First, it called for a
repertoire of cultivable plants, and these were not locally available. Second,
28 SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY

farming the desert demanded a water management system predicated on long

lead-off canals. This necessitated a large labor commitment. Thus, in over-
view, the economic environment ranged from zones with abundant, easily
exploited resources to situations of great potential but demanding a sophis-
ticated technology and large labor investment.
The early residents of the Ancon-Chillon area were affected by the dis-
tribution of resources (Figure 1). Below the Rio Chillon there is a long

A PRECERAMIC SITE * ENCANTO SITE -- LOMAS VEGETATION

Fig. 1. Map of the Ancon-Chillon area.

strand of sand beach. This stretches north from the delta for 11 kilometers.
Then there are eight kilometers of rocky littoral broken by small beaches.
At the bay of Ancon the littoral reverts to a long sand strand. Lomas areas
are well away from the river. One is 11 kilometers north and one kilometer
inland, while another is eight kilometers inland and 13 kilometers above
the river. The largest lomas stand is seven kilometers north of Ancon Bay
and several kilometers inland. Thus, in general terms there is a predom-
inance of sandy over rocky littoral, and the three lomas zones are scattered
and removed from the river.
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD
In the Ancon-Chillon area rapid change in subsistence patterns took
place between 3000 and 1500 B.C. This period spans three units of ar-
chaeological time: the end of the lithic stage; the entire cotton preceramic
 SUBSISTENCE AND DEMOGRAPHY: PREHISTORIC PERU 29

stage, beginning around 2500 B.C.; and the early part of the initial period of
pottery use, beginning about 1750 B.C.
The Encanto phase is the last of the lithic stage phases in the local ar-
chaeological sequence. A survey by Lanning (1963) has located 13 Encanto
sites in the Ancon region. These are scattered three to seven kilometers inland
behind the bay, and three kilometers south of one lomas area and some seven
north of another. The area is completely dry, and there is no potable water
in the vicinity. The sites are surface artifact scatters occasionally associated
with shallow, low density refuse deposits. They are believed to have been
temporary camping and lithic workshop locations. Outside the Ancon area
one Encanto quarry site has been found near the Chillon River. It was
formerly thought that several coastal middens dated to the Encanto phase
(Lanning 1967). More recent excavation has shown that this was probably
not the case (Patterson and Moseley 1968). Encanto sites and coastal middens
have essentially non-overlapping artifact assemblages, both in terms of
technological devices and of items not related to the food quest, such as
fabrics. Lomas resources do not appear in coastal middens, and the radio-
carbon dates from the two sets of sites have produced distinct assays. These
lines of evidence indicate that the Encanto peoples were culturally and
temporally separated from the succeeding coastal dwellers.
Encanto phase artifacts pertaining to food procurement include pro-
jectile points, knives, scrapers, and other stone tools. Manos and metates are
of common occurrence. Fishing gear has not been found, although cactus spine
fishhooks were used at a site, contemporary with Encanto, 100 kilometers to
the south (Donnan 1964:142). While the Encanto artifacts differ in form
from those in the preceding phase of the lithic stage, there is no basic dif-
ference in kind. And, in this sense, the archaeological record shows no
obvious evidence of significant refinement or innovation in technological
devices pertaining to hunting and gathering. The situation with fishing
equipment is unclear. If hooks or nets were in use, they could be considered
an innovation because none have been reported from local pre-Encanto
sites.
Excavation in one of the deeper Encanto deposits encountered refuse
to a depth of 60 cm. Shells of rock-perching mollusks were very abundant.
Vertebrae of small fish were common, and several cameloid bones were
found. Quantitative comparison of these materials establishes sea resources
as the main source of dietary protein (Moseley 1970). This makes an interest-
ing contrast with the subsistence technology which is indicative of hunting,
but not of fishing. The excavated Encanto refuse contained great quantities
of tiny seed husks and small unidentified seeds, presumably from lomas
30 SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY

plants. A few pieces of gourd were recovered, as were several squash seeds.
These, however, were of secondary importance, but they do attest to the
presence of cultivated plants at the end of the lithic stage. Gourd may have
been present before the Encanto Phase (Lanning 1965). However, the refuse
at earlier sites has not been systematically studied, and all that can be affirmed
is that marine resources are less in evidence.
The cotton preceramic stage is marked by the introduction of cotton.
This stage began about 2500 B.C. and lasted for 750 years. It can be divided
into early, middle, and late periods on the basis of changes in twined fabrics
(Moseley and Barrett 1969).
Seven Ancon-Chillon sites are securely dated to the stage. All are situated
immediately adjacent to the coast in completely arid regions, with one
exception. This unique site is a very large settlement near the mouth of the
Chillon River, two kilometers in from the sea. There is no overlap with the
distribution of Encanto or with other lithic stage sites. When viewed over
a span of time, the cotton preceramic sites show several trends. The first is
an exponential growth in settlement size. At the opening of the stage, sites
are small, covering only a few hundred square meters. At the end of the
stage there are huge settlements covering many hectares. Patterson (1971)
has translated this phenomenon into a population chart indicating that the
Ancon-Chillon area contained 100 people at the opening of the cotton pre-
ceramic and 1500 at the close. Though arbitrarily derived, these figures do
underscore the marked growth that transpired. A second trend is the move-
ment away from a sporadic distribution of small sites along the coast to a
pattern where large settlements are regularly situated 10 to 11 kilometers
apart.
There are four early cotton preceramic sites. One is a shallow low-density
refuse deposit, likely the product of a seasonal or very short-lived occupation.
The others are small middens 1.3 to 2.0 meters deep, with compact high-
density refuse that probably represents permanently occupied settlements.
One is situated in a sand beach area 10 kilometers north of the river. Ex-
cavated artifacts pertaining to the food quest were limited to fish nets and
a digging stick. The midden was primarily composed of marine products,
over 80% of which came from the sandy littoral zone. Cultivated plants were
present in minor quantities and included gourd, cotton, legumes, and guava.
Another midden is situated two kilometers north in an area of rocky head-
lands. Exacavation produced numerous fishhooks but only one net fragment.
Food remains were mainly of marine origin, and over 80% were derived
from the rocky littoral zone. Minor quantities of cultivated plants were
present, including gourd, cotton, legumes, guava, and squash. Situated be-
 SUBSISTENCE AND DEMOGRAPHY: PREHISTORIC PERU 31

tween this site and the first discussed above was the shallow seasonal or
temporarily occupied settlement. The third high-density midden was
located near the headlands of Ancon Bay in an area of mixed sandy and
rocky beach. Artifacts included both fishhooks and, apparently, nets. Marine
foods were derived from both the rocky and sandy littoral zones. Cultivated
plants consisted of gourd, cotton, legumes, guava, and peppers.
These early sites reveal several important features. First, there was no
carry-overof the Encanto phase hunting-gathering technology and no reliance
on lomas resources. In other words, there was a complete break with the
earlier subsistence patterns. Second, two of the settlements show highly
specialized subsistence patterns, one manifesting an almost exclusive focus
on sandy littoral resources and the other a comparable focus on the rocky
littoral zone. Third, and finally, the vegetable content of the early sites
points to an increase in the number of plants being cultivated. Even though
these were of secondary importance, the quantity and types of plants in use
were far greater than those of the Encanto phase.
During the middle phase of the cotton preceramic stage there was a
minor shift in settlement patterns, and the earlier middens ceased to be
occupied. In the Ancon area a large settlement developed behind the sand
flats of the bay. The subsistence technology and food remains point to ex-
ploitation of both sandy beach and rocky coast resources. A second site of
substantial size appeared some 10 kilometers north of the river. The residents
of this settlement, in the immediate vicinity of the earlier site, specialized
in exploiting resources of the sandy littoral, and this subsistence pattern was
continued.
The large middle-phase sites continued to be occupied during the last part
of the cotton preceramic stage. Excavation at each site points to growth in
settlement size (Moseley 1970). A third area of occupation developed near
the mouth of the river. This site, the largest preceramic site yet reported in
Peru, consists of a vast architectural complex covering 50 to 60 hectares.
Composed of agglutinated masonry rooms basically domestic in nature, the
settlement is reminiscent of the great Pueblo IV sites in the American south-
west. Engel (1966), who excavated at the site, estimates the population to
have been on the order of 1500 individuals. Fishing nets are reported from
the site, as are sand-dwelling mollusks and one species of rock-perching
shellfish. Thus, the exploitation of marine products had its apparent focus
primarily on the sand littoral.
Cultivated plants are found at all sites with middle and late phase oc-
cupations. Gourd, cotton, legumes, squash, pepper, guava, and lucuma were
in wide use by the close of the stage. Other crops, such as achira, may also
32 SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY

have been present. The distribution of plant remains in the Ancon-Chillon

area sites shows several features of interest. First, there is considerable varia-
tion in the types and quantities of crops found at settlements dated as con-
temporary with one another. In part the differences may be due to problems
in sampling, but the overriding variances between sites of the same age are
sufficient to suggest that all cultivated plants were not equally available to
all inhabitants of the area. Second, where excavated collections have been
dealt with in an quantitative manner, both individual sites and the cotton
preceramic as a whole show a slow but progressive increase in the types and
quantities of plants in use (Moseley 1970). However, at these sites cultivated
foods were always of secondary importance to marine resources. As Pickers-
gill (1969:57) points out, none of the plants were fit to serve as an agricul-
tural staple.l
Although sea foods formed the core of the local economy, it is noteworthy
that the marine subsistence technology was highly static. There is no evi-
dence of watercraft. Nets and fishhooks were present at the opening of the
cotton preceramic, and this fishing gear remained unchanged and unelabor-
ated throughout the entire stage. In other words, there is no evidence of
technological improvement in the most basic aspect of the subsistence pat-
tern.
The large settlement at the mouth of the Chillon and the site to the
north were abandoned at the close of the preceramic stage, and only Ancon
Bay continued to be inhabited. This decline in littoral sites does not denote
abandonment of the region. Rather, there seems to have been a shift away
from the coast to residence within the valleys. A clear reflection of this
change is evinced in the appearance of large inland ceremonial centers. One
is found five kilometers from the sea on the lower margin of the Chillon
Valley, and a very extensive pyramidal structure is located well up-river in
the next valley south. These large centers were presumably built and main-
tained by sizable populations residing in the vicinity. The argument for
interior residence is further strengthened in that this type of settlement
pattern was well established by the succeeding archaeological period (Scheele
1970).
Subsistence patterns of the initial period are not well known. Fishing
continued as the economic mainstay at Ancon; however, farm produce was
now of great importance. Sweet potatoes, peanuts, and eventually maize

1 Patterson (1971) implies maize was present in the Ancon-Chillon area during cotton
preceramic times. However, he has yet to present the evidence for this contention. This
plant was not present in any of the early deposits which I excavated, and other investigators
working in the region have failed to find maize in an early context.
 SUBSISTENCE AND DEMOGRAPHY: PREHISTORIC PERU 33

entered the diet in large quantities. The appearance of new plants suitable
as agricultural staples and the quantitative increase in the use of cultivated
foods by the Ancon community clearly give evidence of marked growth in
the importance of the Chillon Valley as an agricultural area. The increased
reliance upon cultivated plants correlates with the shift to inland residence.
Agriculture would have afforded the only viable economic base for maintain-
ing large interior-valley populations. Because the inland population was
apparently larger than its coastal counterpart, farming can be considered to
have displaced fishing as the most significant economic activity.
In summary, the archaeological record shows the early inhabitants of the
Ancon-Chillon area to have undergone rapid and fundamental economic
change. Hunting and gathering was completely replaced by fishing. In turn,
fishing was displaced to a secondary economic role when farming assumed
primacy. Each of the major changes was preceded by a gradual build-up in
reliance on products that were to assume primacy in the succeeding subsis-
tence pattern. Thus, the Encanto population was committed to the exploita-
tion of marine resources although pursuing a hunting and gathering way of
life. Similarly, cultivated plants had risen to importance for coastal peoples
by the end of the preceramic stage. Finally, each major change in subsistence
patterns coincided with a substantial change in settlement pattern.
SUBSISTENCE LOGISTICS

Subsistence logistics is concerned with a problem faced by every society-

namely, bringing food resources and consumers together. Subsistence goods
are not uniformly available to any group of people. Such resources have
inherent characteristics that cause their products to be irregularly distributed
through time and space. These characteristics and the different patterns of
availability that they foster call for specific adaptations on the part of the
exploiting and consuming populations. Where the exploiting and the
consuming populations are one and the same, as with the earliest Ancon-
Chillon residents, problems of subsistence logistics are most easily solved by
juxtaposing the population with its food resources. Though simple, this
solution is also one in which resource characteristics hold marked social
ramifications. Where the exploiting and the consuming populations are not
the same, problems of subsistence logistics are dealt with in a more com-
plicated manner. Here, features such as resource allocation and exchange
systems become important.
Spatial distribution, temporal availability, preservability, and rejuvena-
tion capacity were some of the more important resource characteristics to
have an impact on the early inhabitants of the coast. These characteristics
34 SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY

are most easily assessed in comparative terms. Thus, arable desert lands may
be said to have a much greater spatial distribution than river flood-plain
soils, and the temporal availability of certain marine products is more
constant than lomas resources. In discussing the temporal availability of re-
sources in the Ancon-Chillon area it is useful to distinguish between micro-
cycles, or seasonal variation, and macrocycles, or long-term, nonseasonal but
repetitive fluctuations. Preservability refers to the relative ease and length
of time that a food product can be kept or stored. This was a significant re-
source characteristic. It was of little consequence, of course, if there was a
superabundance of a food product when the product could not be stored
and thus used to mitigate the impact of micro- or macrocyclic variation.
Ultimately, however, population size was determined not by the amount of
food available in times of plenty but by the subsistence products present in
times of need. Rejuvenation capacity designates the ability of a resource to
maintain continued economic importance after coming under exploitation.
Food commodities are generally organic and thus regenerative. This process
can be affected positively or negatively by numerous factors that may increase
or decrease the availability of the resource.
Considering economic change in the Ancon-Chillon area from the per-
spective of subsistence logistics provides a convenient means for following
some of the ramifications of this change.
THE LITHIC STAGE

Lomas resources supplied the Ancon area inhabitants with a majority of

their foods until the end of the Encanto phase. Stands of fog plants and their
associated fauna were scattered intermittently over the region. The lomas
thus constituted a spatially diffused resource complex, and problems of
subsistence logistics were handled by juxtaposing the population with the
food source areas. The impact of this resource characteristic is evidenced by
the number of small scattered inland sites.
The temporal availability of lomas products was irregular. The intensity
of fog banks along the coast varies from year to year, and thus the nature of
the plant communities also vary. In some seasons the vegetation may be
minor or nonexistent in some areas. On the other hand, when the climatic
regime experiences so-called nifo reversals and there is coastal rain, the
lomas stands may be exceptionally large and rich. This macrocyclic variation
was presumably operative in the past and may have kept the level of the
local population down by making the long-term availability of lomas prod-
ucts irregular. The microcyclic or seasonal bloom of the lomas stands extends
from about July to November, with different products becoming accessible at
 SUBSISTENCE AND DEMOGRAPHY: PREHISTORIC PERU 35

different times. Most likely the last months of bloom would have been most
significant, for many plants come to maturity at this time and the fauna
reach a high density. However, by December the lomas completely disappear
and the stands revert to desert. Consequently, the exploiting populace had
to rely on and move to the location of other resources. The options included
the coast, the Chillon Valley, or the highland where lomas game had its
summer foraging grounds. The lack of coastal Encanto sites indicates that
the first option was not pursued. There are Encanto contemporary sites in
several valley bottom locations well south of the Chillon drainage, and these
point to the second option. However, Lanning (1963) has suggested a pattern
of transhumance as likely.
Preservability of lomas products was probably mixed or limited. If col-
lected in abundance, seeds could have been stored over long periods; how-
ever, the subsistence technology shows no signs of dealing with seasonal sur-
pluses. Sun drying of meat or fleshy plants would have been difficult or
perhaps impossible because of the constant fog and cloud cover. Thus,
there are no grounds to believe lomas resources could be preserved to miti-
gate against fluctuations in either the macro- or microcyclic availability of
local food stuffs.
Lanning (1963, 1965) feels that the long-term rejuvenation capacity of
lomas resources was of economic significance. He argues that fog plants once
covered the Ancon-Chillon area in very extensive belts, but climatic change
resulted in progressive desiccation of the vegetation. Accordingly, the
diminishing rejuvenation capacity of the resources led, at the end of the
Encanto phase, to abandonment of hunting and gathering. This monocausal
explanation of economic change, based on environmental determinism, is
now strongly challenged by the supposed evidence for climatic change
(Craig and Psuty 1968) as well as by greater cogency and applicability of
other explanative models. While the Lanning hypothesis remains a plausi-
bility, the evidence for Holocene climatic change affecting lomas vegeta-
tion in the Ancon-Chillon area is tenuous and awaits serious study.
Marine products constituted the main source of protein during the En-
canto phase. The rocky coast was the primary focus of exploitation, and
these resources were localized and perennial in comparison to lomas re-
sources. Economic reliance upon sea foods may have affected the Encanto
settlement pattern. Sites are situated at relatively low elevations at points
roughly equidistant from the sea and from lomas stands. If site location was
controlled only by lomas exploitation, settlements would expectably be at
higher elevations closer to the modern stands of fog vegetation. However, this
was not the case. Therefore, the positioning of sites in areas between the lomas
36 SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY

stands and the ocean may reflect a "compromise settlement pattern" where
residence was governed by the need to have two important resource com-
plexes equally accessible.
Gourd and squash, in minor quantities, were used during the Encanto
phase. Products of the river flood plain and dependent upon annual floods,
these plants had limited spatial and temporal availability. The presence of
these early cultivated species is of theoretical importance to the issue of
transhumance and to the identification of the area where the Encanto
peoples went each season following the drying of the lomas. Lynch (1971)
has argued that transhumance may have played a significant role in the
development of incipient coastal agriculture by providing for the transfer
of potential cultigens out of their native habitat to the lower, drier desert
valleys. Lynch's model is inherently attractive; yet when viewed from the
perspective of subsistence logistics, it can be argued that transhumance would
have fostered a situation of "resource conflict" that worked to curtail early
agriculture rather than to develop it. Exploiting the lomas and then fol-
lowing game into the highlands would have precluded the cultivation of
plants whose sowing and harvesting did not coincide with the annual oc-
cupation of the coast. In other words, it would have been necessary to tend
the plants between July and November when the lomas bloom, and these
plants would have been cultivated in the river flood plain. Potential conflict
is evident here: if flood-water farming was pursued, then the planting of
crops would necessarily have taken place in March or April after the river
had crested and saturated the flood plain soils; but lomas resources would
not be available until after early July; and the game that feed on the fog
plants would probably not arrive until August or later when the vegetation
was sufficiently rich to support the herds. From this point of view, trans-
humance would place people in the highlands when it was the optimal time
for sowing crops on the coast. Therefore, the pursuit of game, rather than
promoting plant cultivation, could well have inhibited the development of
agriculture in the Ancon-Chillon area.
To summarize: In terms of subsistence logistics the Encanto population
oriented itself toward diffuse seasonal lomas resources of mixed or limited
preservability and perhaps of diminishing rejuvenation capacities. These
factors suggest that a limited food supply was influential in maintaining a
relatively low population density, with resources working to keep people
migrant and distributed among small scattered settlements. A secondary
commitment to marine resources as the major source of dietary protein drew
settlements into locations where they could serve as bases for exploitation of
both the fog plant communities and marine products. Although marine
resources could have sustained the Encanto population on a yearlong basis,
 SUBSISTENCE AND DEMOGRAPHY: PREHISTORIC PERU 37

the Ancon area was abandoned after desiccation of the lomas in a pattern of
seasonal movement to the river valleys or perhaps to the highlands.
THE COTTON PRECERAMIC STAGE

At or just prior to the beginning of the cotton preceramic stage, exploita-

tion of the lomas ceased and marine resources assumed primacy in the sub-
sistence pattern. Invertebrates, mollusks in particular, came from the littoral
zones and formed the dietary mainstay. Fish, sea fowl, and algae were other
principal foods, and pinnipeds were sometimes eaten. Lacking watercraft,
the preceramic population could not effectively exploit the deep water neritic
habitat and had access to marine products only in the immediate areas of
the shore line. Thus, in terms of spatial availability these resources were
highly localized. While ocean life abounds along the entire coast, some
locations support an above average biomass (Schweigger 1947), and these
often represent optimum fishing-collecting stations. The most evident im-
pact of these characteristics is the clustering of large settlements at certain
points near the beach line.
The coastal biomass is outstanding in its richness and abundance, ex-
ceeding that of California and sections of the Northwest Coast (Sverdrup
et al. 1946). Variation in temporal availability is the most significant resource
characteristic that might have prevented the abundant fauna and flora of the
littoral zones from sustaining a very large number of peoples. Parsons (1970)
has raised this issue on the microcyclic level. Pinnipeds and sea urchins
constitute her examples of items that were either more easily hunted or
more comestible and nutritious during certain months of the year. Un-
fortunately, these were never significant dietary elements, as is evident from
the fact that they are either rare or absent at most sites (Wendt 1964; Engel
1963, 1966; Moseley 1970). Some schooling fish in Peruvian waters are migra-
tory and thus seasonal, but these were not important resources since the
people lacked watercraft. Because of their mobility, nektonic mollusks, such
as pecten, could have been difficult to obtain at certain times; however,
pecten and similar species of shellfish are rare or absent in the early Ancon-
Chillon middens. It would be necessary for seasonality, of the type Parsons
envisages, to affect important preceramic food sources-not secondary com-
modities-before being consequential. Yet, rock-perching and sessile mollusks,
most near-shore fish, sea fowl, and algae are available throughout the year.
These primary resources were, therefore, perennial and not subject to
significant fluctuations in microcyclic availability.
Parsons (1970) speculates that the littoral resources may once have been
affected by planktonic toxins analogous to the California "red tides" that
temporarily render certain marine products unfit for human consumption.
38 SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY

Though imaginative, this verges on idle speculation. Such tides are certain-
ly not a modern seasonal phenomenon of the Peruvian coast. To invoke
them as an annual event operative in the past would be to invoke an un-
substantiated degree of climatological and oceanographic change (cf. Craig
and Psuty 1968). There are recorded instances in which a rise in the water
temperature in certain protected Peruvian bays will kill or submerge the
local plankton. Where the process is prolonged, there will be ramifications
on the food-chain. These, however, are localized sporadic events, nonseason-
al in nature. In their most severe form they are associated with marked
macrocyclic nino reversals of the general coastal current regime.
The nifo phenomenon may well have introduced macrocyclic fluctua-
tions in the availability of staples important to the preceramic populations
of the Ancon-Chillon areas. Niios are short-term changes of the coastal cur-
rents marked by influxes of warm waters in places where the usual regime
is one of upwelling cool waters associated with rich supplies of plankton and
other nutrients. The warm waters override the cooler waters and prevent
the plankton and nutrients from reaching the ocean surface. When the
process is intense and prolonged, it is accompanied by the starvation and
death of vast numbers of higher organisms, particularly among the marine
avifauna. Study of guano deposits as well as the recorded instances of niFios
suggests that they occur in roughly seven-year cycles (Hutchinson 1950). The
process is cataclysmic only in its most severe form. But this is rare; the major
aberrations for which there are good records took place in 1856, 1891, 1925,
and 1953, or on the average of about every 33 years (Hutchinson 1950; Craig
and Psuty 1968). Other than for the avifauna the ramifications of such
cataclysms upon the marine life of the littoral have not been studied. There-
fore, the possible consequences which major ninos may have held for pre-
ceramic peoples are not clear. If the invertebrates and molluskan fauna were
killed or adversely affected-and I know of no evidence of this-then the
exploiting population would have been affected if surrogate or other sub-
sistence products, such as algae, could not temporarily replace the loss.
In summary of the temporal availability of littoral resources, there is
little to suggest that microcyclic variation was significant because the major
marine foods were perennial in addition to being extremely abundant. The
most evident corollary of this is the large size of many of the preceramic
settlements. In theory, macrocyclic variation may have been an important
factor, but the impact of major ninos is difficult to assess. The archaeological
record, as it now stands, points to progressive population growth during the
cotton preceramic stage. This suggests that macrocyclic variation in marine
resources was not consequential as a demographic leveling device.
The preservability of marine products under preceramic exploitation was
 SUBSISTENCE AND DEMOGRAPHY: PREHISTORIC PERU 39

highly limited. Yet this factor was not critical because it was balanced out by
the resource characteristics of availability and abundance throughout the
year. The lack of preservable commodities does, however, underscore the
possible consequences of macrocyclic variation because it would be impos-
sible to stock-pile against a sudden, though temporary drop in the availabil-
ity of marine resources.
The rejuvenation capacity of most marine resources was not a significant
economic factor. Even with intensive exploitation the impact on the verte-
brate fauna was negligible because of its abundance and because man was
restricted to the shore line and could not extend his activities to deep water
or off-shore island rookeries. While many of the important littoral inverte-
brates are slow growing, they were, apparently, numerous enough not to
have been affected by the preceramic population. The archaeological record
is rather explicit on this point. After two millennia of intensive mollusk
collecting the largest sand bay in the Ancon-Chillon area dried up as a result
of marine regression or local tectonic uplift. The gradually receding waters
left behind vast beds of stranded clams as fossil evidence of man's negligible
impact upon what was once the local dietary mainstay.
In addition to sea products, wild and cultivated plants were utilized
during the cotton preceramic period. Most plants came from the river,
although a few species were collected in several marsh areas and small
lagoons situated behind one section of the sandy littoral zone. These re-
sources were available throughout the year, whereas plants growing along
the river were more of a seasonal resource. The river plain, because of its en-
trenched nature, constituted a spatially restricted economic zone. Within
this region, land suitable for flood-water farming had an even more localized
distribution because much of the plain is composed of cobble rather than
silt deposits. Although the climate would allow plants to be cultivated
throughout the year, flood-water farming was predicated upon and sched-
uled by the annual rise and drop in the flow of the Chillon. This imparted
a seasonal nature to the crops grown by the preceramic populace. Periodic
droughts undoubtedly introduced macrocyclic fluctuations in the availability
of plants from the river flood plain. The preservability of food crops was
mixed. Fruits and fleshy plants could not be preserved for long periods, but
this was not true of legumes and some of the other commodities that came
under cultivation late in the preceramic stage. Rejuvenation capacity of the
river plain was not a significant factor because of replenishment of soil
nutrients and the soils themselves by annual flooding.
The economic impact of cultivated plants varied widely. Large commun-
ities, such as that at Ancon Bay, were situated in desert regions well removed
from areas suitable for cultivation. Marine resources formed the dietary
40 SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY

mainstay at these settlements, and plant foods were of minor consequence.

Cultivated plants were of far greater significance at settlements where the
residents could conveniently engage in both fishing and farming. Locations
that served as a base for the exploitation of both river farm lands and the
littoral zones could support exceptionally large communities. The economic
foundations of such sites rested upon a combination of two sets of resources;
it was, therefore, possible to sustain larger residential populations than either
resource complex could maintain individually. The littoral and riparian re-
source complexes were both highly localized, and they had diverging dis-
tributions because the Chillon lies more or less perpendicular to the coast.
The one point where the littoral and riparian resources are adjacent to one
another, and the locale where both could be exploited from a single
residential base, was the river mouth.
These appear to be the factors of subsistence logistics that underlay the
vast settlement that arose at the mouth of the Rio Chillon during the final
phase of the cotton preceramic stage. The site was in the optimal position
for utilizing two resource complexes. The setting was further enhanced by
the fact that near its mouth the Chillon, unlike many coastal rivers, has a
very large tract of land suitable for flood-water farming.
If this interpretation is correct, it indicates that, even with an absence of
agricultural staples, farming was significant in maintaining a settlement of
expanded size when it could be compatibly combined with the primary pre-
ceramic emphasis upon marine products.
The use of cultivated plants increased sharply at the beginning of the
cotton preceramic and then gradually expanded to the close of the stage.
The initial increase was marked by a jump from two cultivated species in
the Encanto phase to six species in the succeeding phase. This rapid augmen-
tation could well be more apparent than real and the product of a short
hiatus in the archaeological record. Yet, it might be argued that the increase
was due to the abandonment of a pattern of following game and of trans-
humance that curtailed cultivation, succeeded by a shift to the exploitation
of marine resources that supported sedentary residence which, in turn,
facilitated increased reliance on agriculture.
In summary, the cotton preceramic population was juxtaposed with its
primary subsistence products. These resources were abundant, localized,
perennial marine products; they allowed for a sedentary way of life and
high population densities. Marine resources also fostered intercommunity
economic specialization. This pattern first appeared as a distinction between
settlements whose residents exploited the sand littoral and the sites where
the rocky littoral was the main focus of activity. Later, specialization became
more significant with the distinction between primarily maritime settlements
 SUBSISTENCE AND DEMOGRAPHY: PREHISTORIC PERU 41

and those communities where plant cultivation was pursued in addition to

fishing.
THE INITIAL PERIOD OF POTTERY USE

At Ancon Bay the maritime economic tradition was carried on with few
modifications. However, other early fishing settlements were abandoned by
the opening of the initial period, and a majority of the local population
shifted to inland residence. The change is believed to have taken place in
response to the development of canal irrigation and the opening of desert
lands to cultivation. Presumably, this development did not take place near
the coast line. Canal irrigation is postulated to have had its initial use, rather,
in the upper inland sections of the Chillon. Here, land slopes and river
gradients are greater than along the coast. This had the effect of making
water management easier and of requiring relatively short lead-off canal
systems to channel water up and out of the entrenched river.
There is no direct physical evidence for initial period canal use. This is
an inference based upon the increased use of agricultural products at Ancon,
the shift to inland residence by the local population, and the fact that the
great preceramic river-mouth site, best suited to engage in flood-water
farming, was abandoned. Granting the argument means that the population
of the Ancon-Chillon area had divided its activity between fishing and in-
tensive farming. While fishing continued in a traditional manner, canal
irrigation brought with it trends in subsistence logistics that were new and
different from the characteristics associated with flood-water farming. These
trends did not culminate until well after the initial period, but they did set
in motion far-reaching changes in the characteristics of cultivated foods.
The earlier practice of flood-water farming restricted cultivated plants
to the confines of the river course and kept domesticates relatively localized.
In this context the upper limit of agricultural productivity was set by the
amount of seasonally inundated land available for cultivation. But canal
irrigation introduced a significant change. It allowed for a much wider
dispersal of food plants across the landscape, thus making agricultural pro-
duce less localized. By opening the desert to intensive economic exploitation,
irrigation also brought about a shift in the factors governing the limits of
agricultural productivity. In many coastal valleys, including the Chillon,
the average seasonal run-off of water is well in excess of the amount needed
to inundate lands suitable for flood-water farming. But in valleys such as
the Chillon there is an excess of potentially arable desert over and above
the amount of run-off needed to irrigate these lands. Thus, with the estab-
lishment of irrigation, water replaced land as the primary factor governing
the expansion and output of farming.
42 SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY

The greater areal dispersal of food plants afforded by irrigation allowed

for an increase in agricultural productivity. With more cultivable land, more
food could be grown. Of course, through time the amount of produce was
further increased by the introduction of new domesticated plants. In terms
of subsistence logistics the appearance of new crops, such as maize, meant
that the preservability of plant food rose from what it had been during the
cotton preceramic stage.
In coastal Peru climatic conditions permit crops to be grown throughout
the year, but microcyclic, or seasonal fluctuations in the availability of cul-
tivated plants are introduced by the periodicity of highland rainfall and its
subsequent run-off to the Pacific. With flood-water farming all planting had
to be carried out at more or less the same time, and only one crop could be
grown annually. This created fluctuations in the yearly availability of
agricultural products-a situation abated in part by the development of
canal irrigation. Once canal systems were expanded, water management
permitted different fields and different areas within a valley to be planted
at different times. This had the effect of spacing harvests through time,
particularly when distinct cultigens with different growth cycles were
farmed. The degree of spacing facilitated by irrigation varied with the
availability of water. In valleys with limited seasonal run-off, water was
present for only short periods of time and planting could not be greatly
prolonged. However, in the coastal locations where water was abundant,
sowing was possible throughout the year, and more than one crop could be
grown annually. The Chillon Valley fell between these two extremes.
Occasional droughts have always created macrocyclic fluctuations in the
availability of cultivated foods. Irrigation tended to accent such oscillations.
Once the canal systems were expanded and water reached a premium, even
minor variations in run-off would create fluctuations in the amount of food
that could be grown. Not all fluctuations were of equal significance, but with
water a scarce commodity most deviations from the seasonal norm would
register on the economy. This was not the case with flood-water farming in
valleys such as the Chillon. Here arable river bottom land, not water, was at
a premium, and substantial variations in run-off could occur before affecting
the output of farming. Yet, if canal irrigation was just beginning during the
initial period, water must have remained relatively abundant and macro-
cyclic fluctuations in agricultural produce would appear with only more
marked droughts.
The rejuvenation capacity of flood-water farm lands was not a signif-
icant factor, but it was an important element in irrigated desert areas. The
critical factor in cultivating desert lands was salinization rather than re-
plenishment of soil nutrients. This problem would not arise as long as there
 SUBSISTENCE AND DEMOGRAPHY: PREHISTORIC PERU 43

was sufficient water and good drainage to carry off carbonates being leached
out of cultivated soils. However, once irrigation expanded to the point
where water was scarce, salinization could have become more acute. If the
up-stream areas had first water rights and areas in the valley mouth last
rights, then the latter areas might receive insufficient water to flush excess
carbonates from the soil. In time, salinity could reach the point where culti-
vation was not practicable. There is, however, no evidence that the Chillon
Valley was ever affected by this problem.
In summary, the Ancon-Chillon population was juxtaposed with two
distinct resource complexes during the initial period. The complexes had
different characteristics and prompted different adaptations. Because of the
distribution of the resource complexes, the populace developed two distinc-
tive residence patterns-one coastal and one inland. The coastal inhabitants
continued to reside in large sedentary communities. Relying on canal irriga-
tion, the inland population cultivated the desert. Here subsistence was
dependent upon plant foods, foods which were more easily preserved, less
seasonal, and more widely dispersed than they had been in the past. These
factors, in theory, resulted in a dispersal of the inland residents among
scattered farmsteads and small villages. In other words, whereas marine
resources favored consolidation of the exploiting population, early cultiva-
tion favored spacing and fragmentation of the exploiting population. It
seems that the development of major inland occupation centers comparable
in size to the great coastal settlement awaited the development of exchange
and distributive systems capable of moving subsistence goods widely dis-
persed across the landscape to centralized locations.
RESOURCE RIGHTS

Subsistence logistics provides a convenient means of examining the

availability of food products from the point of view of the consuming pop-
ulation. However, availability is affected by factors other than resource
characteristics, technology, and labor. Ownership or use rights are generally
imposed upon resources, thereby making them more accessible to some
people and less accessible to others. Items of little or no economic importance
are often in the public domain. However, when technological innovation
opens a new resource to use, and as this item assumes increasing importance,
the jural rights governing its exploitation and production become signif-
icant in affecting the availability of the item.
Rights to resources very likely became important when the Ancon-Chillon
population shifted to a littoral-based economy. The earliest suggestions of
differential resource accessibility comes from two small settlements during
the initial phase of the cotton preceramic stage. The sites were situated
44 SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY

some two kilometers apart. One was near the center of a very large sand bay,
and the other settlement was on the rocky headlands of the bay. Radiocar-
bon dates, if taken at face value, point to overlapping occupations. There
are sufficient differences in the artifacts and other remains at each site to
indicate that they were the products of separate small populations. Both
sites are close to, or within easy walking distance of areas of sand beach and
rocky littoral. Because of this proximity, food remains from both types of
littoral could be expected in large quantities in each of the middens. This,
however, was not the case: the midden remains point to highly restricted
patterns of exploitation, one focused on products of the sand beach and the
other on products of the rocky headlands. In these sites, then, a highly
artificial selection was made from the foods available in the general vicinity
of each settlement, with the residents relying only on the resources found
within the immediate area of each site. This situation may be the result of
the imposition of jural rights through which the residents of each settle-
ment controlled access to resources in their immediate vicinity.
As the Ancon-Chillon population increased in size in the later portion of
the preceramic stage, the control of fishing and mollusk collecting areas
would presumably have increased in importance. By the close of the stage
the local population was distributed in three large sedentary communities.
These were regularly spaced along the coast about 10 kilometers apart. The
composition of the marine midden remains at each site closely correlates
with the configuration of the coastline in the general region of the site; e.g.,
sites situated near a particularly long expanse of sand beach contain pro-
ducts of the open beach and not the rocky littoral. For the most part, there
are no contemporary fishing camps between the major sites. Thus, the regular
spacing of the large settlements, their specialization in local resources, and
the lack of intermittent sites that might be drawing on the same resources
combine to suggest again that free access to all the available resources was
probably not permitted. Rather, it seems likely that each of the major
centers retained control over sections of the near-by coast and based its
subsistence economy on these resources.
The development of agriculture must also have been accompanied by
the development of resource rights over arable land. Land suitable for
flood-water farming was scarce, and it seems likely that its use was restricted
to certain segments of the local population. The great variation in the type
and quantity of plant foods found at contemporaneous preceramic sites in-
dicates a differential availability of these products. Indeed, the vast size of
the preceramic settlement at the mouth of the Chillon was probably not
merely the result of easy access to arable land as well as marine resources.
 SUBSISTENCE AND DEMOGRAPHY: PREHISTORIC PERU 45

Rather, it was the result of exclusive control over this land and its products by
residents of the site.
Thus, in a general way the archaeological record gives support to the
idea that as technological innovation opened new resources in the Ancon-
Chillon area the rights governing the exploitation of these resources became
particularized and controlled by different segments of the population. This
had the effect of imposing an artificial degree of differential availability on
the resources.
The archaeological record also suggests a positive correlation between
the development of resource rights and the development of intercommunity
economic specialization. The consequences of this correlation are not clear.
It may, however, have placed the early development of agriculture in the
hands of a limited segment of the population. If residents of the river-
mouth settlement controlled the available flood-water farm land, other
segments of the population would have been precluded from engaging in
cultivation and would have been forced into continued concentration on
fishing and marine-collecting. In theory at least, this monopoly of farming
via the control of the limited amount of arable river land would not be
broken until the advent of irrigation, which opened the desert to cultiva-
tion and allowed water to replace land as the limiting factor in agricultural
productivity.
DEMOGRAPHIC DEVIATION

My concern in this paper has been with the nature and ramification of
the change in subsistence patterns that transpired in the Ancon-Chillon
area. To inquire why the changes occurred in the first place is something
of a moot if not meaningless question. Lanning (1963, 1967) invokes climatic
change and desiccation of the lomas as the prime mover in the shift to a
maritime economy. This is, however, neither a well substantiated nor
particularly satisfying explanation. Other investigators would regard the
transformation of subsistence patterns as an outgrowth of some sort of
inherent drive by the coastal population to obtain more food for less labor.
This raises the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism to a level of
cultural consciousness not compatible with the archaeological data. The
record shows a long and gradual build-up to fishing and to farming before
either assumed economic primacy. In neither case is there evidence of
attempts to speed up or refine the economic change. This is most apparent
in the subsistence technology. The early populace never moved beyond the
most rudimentary of fishing devices and techniques, and with farming there
was a basic dependence upon receiving innovations from the outside.
46 SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY

To understand why change took place it is useful to view the early

subsistence economies as being composed of two interrelated sets of com-
ponents. The first was comprised of the factors of production, including re-
sources, technology, and labor. The second set consisted of the factors of
consumption, including the demand for and use of production. Under
varying circumstances the relationships between these components could
set forces in motion to counteract or to amplify economic change.
From the archaeological data it is clear that factors of production,
specifically technology and labor, played passive roles up to the introduction
of canal irrigation. The role of resource complexes was variable. The lomas
and river plain held limited productive potential. The littoral zones and the
desert held great productive potential. High output from the former de-
manded few technological requisites, but this was not true of the latter.
Turning to factors of consumption, economic output did not manifest itself
in the elaboration of chattel. There was some expenditure of energy on
domestic and corporate-labor architecture. Yet, this was but one aspect of
the most dramatic use of economic output, namely, the cumulative growth
through time of site volume and, by inference, population. Patterson (1971)
has postulated a 2,900% demographic increase from the lithic stage to the
introduction of pottery. This development carries two implications relating
to the factors of consumption. First, production was used primarily for
population maintenance. Second, the demand for production was not stable;
rather, it was expanding as a consequence of demographic growth.
It is my contention that there was positive feedback between the resource
and demand components of the early subsistence economies that perpetuated
and amplified the processes of change for more than one and a half millennia.
This rests on two assumptions. First, a population will grow to the limits of
its food supply.2 If the supply exceeds the demand, natural demographic
increase will raise demand to a parity with supply. This situation works
for quantitative change because an expanding population requires con-
tinually more economic output until demographic leveling takes place.
The second assumption is that a new resource must be integrated into the
economy if it results in population growth beyond the carrying capacity
of the traditional subsistence economy; i.e., once a new commodity begins to
support more people than would otherwise be possible, there is a built-in
demand for the resource, and it must be integrated within the subsistence
pattern if the new demographic level is to be maintained. Once this demo-
2 The food supply open to a population is not synonymous with the carrying capacity of
the population's economic environment. The former refers to those food resources that the
factors of production actually make available for consumption; the latter refers to resources
that, in theory, could be made available under ideal conditions.
 SUBSISTENCE AND DEMOGRAPHY: PREHISTORIC PERU 47

graphic Rubicon is crossed, qualitative economic change must follow. In

summary, the two assumptions combine to imply that a new resource will
lead to quantitative and then qualitative change if its exploitation is accom-
panied by a growth in population that cannot be absorbed by the traditional
subsistence economy.
Returning to the archaeological record, it is evident that by Encanto
times hunter-gatherers were exploiting marine resources intensively and were
primarily dependent upon these for protein. Therefore, it seems highly
likely that a segment of the population had crossed the demographic limit
and extended its subsistence base beyond the carrying capacity of the lomas.
This population excess did not initially bud off and turn to full-time
fishing; rather, it attempted to accommodate itself within the extant sub-
sistence pattern. This may have had two effects: the first would be to retard
the marine-supported population growth; the second would be to tax the
lomas and traditional resources with a population overload. If the popula-
tion had become excessive and traditional resources were over-exploited,
this pressure might have been a factor in the complete abandonment of the
lomas once full-time fishing developed. However, the abandonment of the
lomas was effected at a more basic level by the fact that marine resources
could not only support a population increase among the local hunter-
gatherers but could also easily absorb the entire lomas-dependent population.
A similar process of autogenous change can be argued for the rise of
coastal farming. In this pursuit, however, foreign technological innovations
were of basic importance. It is also significant that there was an overlap with
the development of fishing. Reliance on marine resources was still expanding
at the time cultivated plants were coming into initial use, and this may have
prolonged the time needed to build up a demand for, and an economic-
demographic commitment to, farming. As long as the carrying capacity of
marine resources had not been reached, any population growth afforded by
agriculture could be absorbed by fishing and littoral collecting. The effect
would be to channel off demographic pressure for dependency on plant
foods. In terms of population support, farming could remain "non-obliga-
tory" so long as marine products would accommodate demographic expan-
sion and so long as all members of the society had access to these products.
In a general way this model may be applicable to much of the coast. The
initial period is marked by a pronounced population redistribution and by a
sharp increase in the use of plants. These events could reflect two develop-
ments: first, that marine resources reached the upper limits of their pro-
ductivity or availability; second, that the introduction of canal irrigation
allowed agriculture to move into the desert and to accommodate substan-
tial population growth.
48 SOUTHWESTERNJOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY

This model is, however, not specifically applicable to all coastal sites.
At a few favorable valley-mouth locations it was possible to practice both
fishing and farming. Occasionally these settlements grew to a size beyond the
carrying capacity of the local marine resources, and a portion of the popula-
tion was dependent upon and therefore committed to farming. These settle-
ments then became the fountainheads of coastal agriculture.

SUMMARY
I have dealt with the Ancon-Chillon data through three interrelated ap-
proaches. Subsistence logistics seems a useful heuristic device for investigat-
ing changing subsistence patterns. It does, however, tend to frame cor-
relations in terms that may over-emphasize the causal relationship. Resource
rights are certainly an influential economic factor, although I am far from
convinced that the examples offered in this paper necessarily demonstrate
their archaeological presence. The role of demographic deviation within a
model of autogenous change in subsistence patterns I find intriguing. Though
the model may seem tenuous, it is at least as applicable to the data as the
current alternatives of climatic deviation or the Weberian spirit of capital-
ism. Viewing the economic changes that took place in terms of self-amplify-
ing change does not really answer the question of why the changes trans-
pired in the first place. The "why" aspect of the question is reduced to the
rather minimal query of what initially stimulates people to experiment with
the use of a commodity. Perhaps it was simply a desire for dietary variation
that opened the door to reliance on marine resources and ushered in
population growth. With farming it could have been the rather mundane
need for gourds as water containers that triggered the rise of agricultural
civilization in the desert coast of Peru. From the viewpoint adopted in this
study, however, the ultimate cause for reliance on a new subsistence item is
relatively insignificant in comparison to the spiraling processes of demo-
graphic and cultural change that can follow.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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