Adult Stature and Standard of Living in the Prehistoric Atacama Desert

Walter Alves Neves; Maria Antonieta Costa

Current Anthropology, Vol. 39, No. 2. (Apr., 1998), pp. 278-281.

Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28199804%2939%3A2%3C278%3AASASOL%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I

Current Anthropology is currently published by The University of Chicago Press.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained
prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in
the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/journals/ucpress.html.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.

The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic
journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers,
and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community take
advantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

http://www.jstor.org
Sat Feb 16 17:19:14 2008
278 I C U R R E N T ANTHROPOLOGY
Adult Stature and Standard of
Living in the Prehistoric
Atacama Desert
WALTER ALVES NEVES AND
MARIA ANTONIETA COSTA
Laboratorio de Estudos Evolutivos Humanos,
Instituto de BiociBncias, Universidade de SLio Paulo,
C.P. I I ~ ~05422.970
I , SLio Paulo, SP, Brazil
(waaneves@usp.br)llnstituto de Investigaciones
Arqueologicas R. P. G. Le Paige, Universidad del
Norte, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. 7 VII 97
After almost ~ , o o oyears of local development associ-
ated with limited trading with neighboring polities, the
societies that inhabited the Atacama Desert became
part of the sphere of influence of the Tiwanaku empire
of the Bolivian altiplano from A.D. 400 until approxi-
mately 900 (Berenguer et al. 1988, Nunez 1992, Oak-
land 1992). The nature of the interaction between the
Atacama societies and the center of the Tiwanalzu state
is still a matter of debate among archaeologists. For a
few (Serracino 1980) the influence was restricted to ar-
tistic inspiration; for the majority, however, it had po-
litical, religious, and economic components (Le Paige
1965, Browman 1980, Llagostera, Torres, and Costa
1988, Nunez 1992, Oalzland 1992). The only point that
seems well established is that the interaction did not
involve any military action (Neves et al. 1996). This
seems to have been the case in the more nuclear areas
of the empire in the south-central Andes as well (Brow-
man 1980, Stanish and Steadman 1994). The archaeo-
logical sites excavated in the Atacama Oasis dating
between A.D.400 and 900 show an explosion of man-
ufacturing and decorating of everyday material culture
and especially of mortuary, ritual, and religious objects
(Oalzland 1992). Most of these objects became at that
point similar to those used in the heartland of Tiwa-
nalzu and were elaborately decorated with altiplano mo-
tifs such as the head hunter and felines. Two important
elements differentiate the tombs of this period from
those of previous or later ones: a greater number of mor-
tuary associations in general and a high frequency of
items of hallucinogenic paraphernalia (the "rappee
complex" [Le Paige 1965, Llagostera and Costa 1984,
Llagostera et al. 1988, Oalzland 19921). Although the
habit of inhaling hallucinogenic substances was already
in place in the Atacama Desert long before Tiwanalzu
influence became apparent, there is no doubt that it
reached its peak under the influence of the altiplano (Le
Paige 1965, Llagostera and Costa 1984, Nubez 1992).
Another difference detected by archaeological studies is
that the commercial network of which Atacameneans
were a part significantly expanded during this period,
involving a multitude of new raw materials, including
gold and precious stones, and exotic items from various
parts of the south-central Andes. From this some ar-
chaeologists conclude that the Atacama Desert became
an important node in the economic web of the Tiwa-
nalzu empire, playing an important role for the camelid
caravans that linked the heartland of the e m ~ i r ewith
its southernmost periphery in northwestern Argentina
(Oakland 1992, Kolata 1993). For all these reasons, the
~ e r i o dunder the influence of Tiwanalzu is also known
as the climax of the Atacamenean culture. After the col-
lapse of Tiwanaku, the Atacameneans turned once
again to their local resources, maintaining intense trad-
ing relationships only with southwestern Bolivia and
northwestern Argentina. The tombs of the Later Period
show a general impoverishment in number and quality
of associated goods (Costa 1988).
Up to the present, no investigation has attempted to
understand the impact of the Tiwanaku influence on
the general quality of life of the Atacamenean popula-
tion. Although archaeologists are convinced that there
was a general enrichment in the region, the nature and
distribution of this wealth are still unknown. In this pa-
Der we use adult stature and sexual d i m o r ~ h i s min skel-
etal remains to investigate how the Tiwanalzu influence
affected the Atacameneans' standard of living. This
work is Dart of a long-term
" Chilean-Brazilian research
project aimed at recovering elements of the lifestyle,
quality of life, and social organization during the prehis-
toric human occupation of the Atacama Desert using
osteological information as a point of departure.
Specialists in human growth and development and
more recently also economists (Eveleth and Tanner
1976; Tanner 1981, 1986; Jelliffe 1966; Martorell 1982;
Larsen 1987; Frisancho 1990; Steckel I 99 5 ) consider
adult stature a potent indicator of the nutritional status
and standard of living of a population, not only because
there is a strong relationship between stature and food
intake during maturation (McLaren 1976) but also be-
cause size variation in adults is likely to reflect chronic
conditions (Bogin 1988). In other words, stature in
adults reflects the environmental conditions to which
individuals were subject during their subadult lives. Al-
though certain nutrients, such as calories, protein, zinc,
and vitamins, have been shown to be important in
maintaining growth, growth is not exclusively related
to nutrition (Huss-Ashmore, Goodman, and Armelagos
1982, Larsen 1987); a multitude of other factors inter-
vene between diet and nutritional status, including
work intensity and disease load during the growing
years (Allen 1984). For this reason, we agree with Tan-
ner (1986)that human growth can be used to judge the
quality of a society's life and with Steckel (1gg5:1908),
who calls it "a measure of the consum~tionof basic ne-
cessities that incorporates demands placed on one's bio-
logical system." In this work we use femur length as a
proxy for adult height. As has been widely demon-
strated in several classic works, there is a strong correla-
tion between the length of the lower limbs and total
height in humans (Maresh 1955, Genoves 1967, Broth-
well 1981, Ubelalzer 1981, Larsen 1987).
We used femur length in two complementary ways to
assess differences in standard of living in the course of
 Volume 39, Number 2, April 1998 1279

TABLE I
Skeletal Samples Included in the Study

Absolute Dating

Period Site N Date (A.D.) Source

Pre-Tiwanalzu Solcor-3 26 250 i 150b Llagostera et al, (1988:64)

480 -+ 60 Llagostera et al. (1988:64]
Tiwanalzu Solcor-3 34 480 i 80 Llagostera et al, (1y88:65]
570 -+ 60 Llagostera et al. (1y88:65)
680 i 90 Llagostera et al. (1988:65)
510 -+ 150' Berenguer et al, (1988:344)
720 2 95' Berenguer et al. (1988:344)
850 C 110" Berenguer et al, (1988:344)
910 i 50" Berenguer et al. (1988:344)
920 i 120' Berenguer et al. (1988:344)
Post-Tiwanalzu Quitor-6 27 920 ? 120d Costa (1988:105)
1060 i 180 Costa (1988:105)
1240 -+ 70 Costa (1988:105)
Coyo-3 30 990 * 50 Agustin Llagostera, personal
communication
Agustin Llagostera, personal
communication
Agustin Llagostera, personal
communication

a Except where otherwise indicated, all dates are 14C.

From a tomb in the Quitor-6 cemetery, used as a chronological marlzer for Solcor-3 because of
the similarity of the associated pottery.
' Thermoluminescence dates.
A thermoluminescence date of 840 -+ 70 was rejected by the excavators.

the prehistory of the Atacama Desert (Larsen 1987).
First we simply compared the means of adjacent pairs of
periods, and second we determined the degree of sexual
dimorphism within each period. The second strategy is
justified by the fact that body variables are sexually di-
morphic under good nutritional conditions (Frayer and
Wolpoff 1985). Females show better growth canaliza-
tion than men and for this reason are less susceptible
to nutritional stresses (Tanner 1962; Stini 1969, 1982,
1985). Consequently, nutritional stresses affect physi-
cal growth and development in males more than in fe-
males, reducing sexual anthropometric differences in a
population (see Stinson 1985 for a review and a different
opinion). For this reason, an assessment of sexual di-
morphism for body proportions can also be used as an
indicator of the standard of living of a population (To-
bias 1962, 1972; Frayer and Wolpoff 1985; Larsen 1987;
Baffi and Cocilovo 1989; Pucciarelli et al. 1993).
We examined skeletal samples representing three pe-
riods of the local prehistory: Pre-Tiwanalzu, Tiwanalzu,
and Post-Tiwanalzu (Pre-Inca) (table I ) . Although the
samples are rather small, they represent the totality of
skeletons for which cranial and postcranial material are
available.
As can be seen in table 2 and figure I, there is a
tendency for femur length to increase from the Pre-
Tiwanaku to the Tiwanalzu period and to decrease from
the Tiwanalzu to the Post-Tiwanalzu. Although this
happens with both sexes, only the difference fo; males
is statistically significant (table 3). This pattern is con-
sistent with the fact that males are more susceptible to
variations in nutrition than females. In short, we can
say that during the Tiwanalzu period the Atacamenean
population experienced a significant increase in stature,
for males about 3 %.
We found a similar trend when the pattern of sexual
dimorphism was investigated. As can be seen in table 4,
there is significant sexual dimorphism during all three
periods, but whereas during the Pre-Tiwanalzu period
males were 7.0% bigger than females, this difference in-
creased to 8.6% during the Tiwanaku and dropped again
to 6.5 % during the Post-Tiwanalzu.
Was the increase in adult male stature during the Ti-
wanaku period the result of a generalized improvement
in nutritional status of the whole population, or was it
restricted to certain individuals pertaining to a defined
elite? Although an absolute answer to this question can
never be obtained, the problem can be tackled by com-
paring the variation of femur length among males in the
three periods analyzed. From the coefficients of varia-
tion in table 2 it is apparent that the Tiwanalzu period
does not show any increase in variation compared with
the other periods. This means that, at least when it is
compared with the two other periods, the data do not
support the hypothesis of a concentration of health in a
few individuals during Tiwanalzu times. Assuming that
the cemeteries studied are representative of the Ataca-
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

Pre-Tiwanaku Tiwanaku Post-Tiwanaku

Periods
FIG. I. Mean femur length variation among t h e different prehistoric periods.

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

Pre-Tiwanaltu 4.670 0.0001

Tiwanalzu 5.722 0.0001
Post-Tiwanalzu 3.751 0.0005
Pre-Tiwanaku 2,137 0.0415 0.921 0.3654

Post-Tiwanalzu 2.021 0.0510 1.138 0.2604


seems there was a general improvement in standard of
living in the Atacama Desert between A.D. 400 and goo.
We still know very little about the details of the rela-
tionships between the core of the Tiwanalzu empire and
its peripheries (Oakland 1992, Kolata 1993). Even for
the heartland of the empire, specialists still differ as to
how the central power involved and incorporated local
polities in higher-order political structures. Kolata
(1986, 1991)~for instance, envisions a highly centralized
bureaucracy that constituted a managerial level be-
yond that of locally autonomous villages. In contrast,
Albarracin-Jordan (1996) sees a more independent life
for the villages, which were incorporated into the em-
pire through what he calls "integrated nested hierar-
chies." Under this second model, operations were man-
aged and coordinated by the local administration and
performed by the pooling of local labor; "the political
system was articulated by shared ideological beliefs
that provided a common language among the different
levels of authority" (Albarracin-Jordan 1996:205). Re-
gardless of how the Atacamenean population articu-
lated with the higher-order political structure of Tiwa-
nalzu, our results point to a positive impact on the
former derived from the relationship.
References Cited
ALBARRACIN-JORDAN, 1. 1996. Tiwanaltu settlement system:
The integration of nested hierarchuies in the Lower Tiwanaltu
Valley. Latin American Antiquity 7:183-210.
A L L E N , L . H . 1984. Functional indicators of nutritional status
of the whole individual or the community. Clinical Nutrition
3:169-75.
B A F F I , E . I . , A N D 1. A . C O C I L O V O . 1989. Evaluation delim-
pacto ambiental en una poblacion prehistorica: El caso de Las
Pirguas, Salta, Argentina. Revista de Antropologia 8:39-43.
B E R E N G U E R , I., R . C A S T R I , A N D O . S I L V A . 1980. Reflexi-
ones acerca de la presencia de Tiwanalzu en el norte de Chile.
Estudios Arqueologicos 5:8 1-93.
B E R E N G U E R , T . , A. R O M A N , A . D E Z A , A N D A . L L A G O S -
T E R A . 1988. Testing a cultural sequence for the Atacama
Desert. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 29:341-46.
B O G I N , B . 1988. Patterns of human growth. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press.
B R O T H W E L L , D . R . 1981. Digging up bones. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press.
B R O W M A N , D . L . 1980. Tiwanalzu expansion and altiplano eco-
nomic patterns. Estudios Arqueologicos 5:1o7-20.
c o S T A , M: A . 1988. Reconstitution fisica y cultural de la pobla-
cion tardia del cementerio de Quitor-6 [San Pedro de Atacama).
Estudios Atacamerios 9:99-126.
E V E L E T H , P . B . , A N D 1. M . T A N N E R . 1976. Worldwide varia-
tion in human growth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
F R A Y E R , D . w., A N D M . H . W O L P O F F . 1985. Sexual dimor-
phism. Annual Review of Anthropology 14:429-73.
F R I S A N C H O , A . R . 1990. Anthropometric standards for the as-
sessment of growth and nutritional status. Ann Arbor: Univer-
sity of Michigan Press.
G E N O V E S , S . 1967 Proportionality of the long bones and their
relation to stature among Mesoamericans. American Journal of
Physical Anthropology 26:67-78.
H U S S - A S H M O R E , R . , A . H . G O O D M A N , A N D G . 1. A R M E -
L A G O S . 1982. Nutritional inference from paleopathology. Ad-
vances i n Archaeological Method and Theory 5:395-474.
TELLIFFE, D. B. 1966. The assessment of nutritional status of
the community. Geneva: World Health Organization.
K O L A T A , A . L . 1986 The agricultural foundations of the Tiwa-
Volume 39, Number 2, April 1998 1 281
nalzu empire: A view from the heartland. American Antiquity
5 11748-62
-----. 1991. The technology and organization of agricultural pro-
duction in the Tiwanalzu state. Latin American Antiquity 2:
99-125.
. 1993. The Tiwanaku: Portrait of an Andean civilization.
Oxford: Blacltwell.
L A R S E N , C . S . 1987. Bioarchaeological interpretations of subsis-
tence economy and behavior from human skeletal remains. Ad-
vances i n Archaeological Method and Theory 10:339-445.
L E P A I G E , G . 1965. Sun Pedro de Atacama y su zona. Anales
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-
logico R. P. Gustavo Le Paige, Sun Pedro de Atacama. De-
partamento de Extension Cultural, Ministerio de Educacion, Se-
rie Patrimonio Cultural Chileno.
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.
El complejo psicotropico en Solcor-3 (San Pedro de Atacama).
Estudios Atacameiios 9:61-98.
M C L A R E N , D . Editor. 1976. Nutrition i n the community. Lon-
don: John Wiley.
M A R E S H , M . M . 195 5. Linear growth of long bones of extremi-
ties from infancy through adolescence. American Journal of
Diseases of Children 89:725-42
M A R T O R E L L , R . 1982. Nutrition and health status indicators.
Washington, D.C.: World Bank.
N E V E S , W . A , , M . A . C O S T A , K . S A L M , A N D R. G .
C U N H A . 1996 Osteologia da organiza~sosocial em San Pedro
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
de Atacama. Santiago: Editorial Universitaria.
O A K L A N D , A . 1992. Textiles and ethnicity: Tiwanaltu in San Pedro
de Atacama, North Chile. Latin American Antiquity 3:3 I 6-40.
P U C C I A R E L L I , H . M . , F. R . C A R N E S E , L . V . P I N O T T I ,
L . M . G U I M A R E Y , A N D A . S . G O I C O E C H E A . 1993. Sexual
dimorphism in schoolchildren of the Vila IAPI neighborhood
(Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina). American Journal of Physi-
cal Anthropology 92:165-72.
S E R R A C I N O , G . 1980. Tiwanaltu desde San Pedro de Atacama.
Estudios Arqueologicos 5:95-106.
S T A N I S H , C . s., A N D L . S T E A D M A N . 1994 Archaeologicalre-
search at Tumatumani, Juli, Peru. Fieldiana: Anthropology 23.
S T E C K E L , R . H . 1995. Stature and the standard of living. Tour-
nal of Economic Literature 33:1903-40.
S T I N I , W . A . 1969. Nutritional stress and growth: Sex differ-
ence in adaptive response. American Tournal of Physical An-
thropology 31:417-26.
-. 1982. "Sexual dimorphism and nutrient reserves," in Sex-
ual dimorphism i n Homo sapiens. Edited by R. L. Hall, pp.
391-419. New York: Praeger.
. 1985. "Growth rates and sexual dimorphism in evolution-
ary perspective," in The analysis of prehistoric diets. Edited by
R. I. Gilbert and J. H. Mielke, pp. 191-226. Orlando: Academic
Press.
S T I N S O N , S . 1985. Sex differences in environmental sensitivity
during growth and development. Yearbook of Physical Anthro-
pology 28:123-47.
T A N N E R , T. M . 1962. Growth at adolescence. Oxford: Blaclzwell.
-----. 1981. A history of the study of human growth. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press.
. 1986. "Growth as a mirror of the condition of society:
Secular trends and class distinction," in Human growth: A
multidisciplinary review. Edited by A. Demirjian, pp. 3-34.
London: Taylor and Francis.
T O B I A S , P . v. 1962. On the increasing stature of the Bushmen.
Anthropos 57:801-1o.
-. I 972. "Growth and stature in South African populations,"
in Human biology of environmental change. Edited by D. J. M.
Vorster, pp. 96-104. London: International Biological Program.
U B E L A K E R , D . H . 1981. Human skeletal remains: Excavation,
analysis, interpretation. Chicago: Aldine.