Social and economic organization in the Muisca village of El Venado Valle de Samacá, Boyacá
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22380/2539472X.1320Keywords:
.Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the development of social hierarchy in the archaeological site of El Venado, a Muisca central village located in the Valle de Samacá, Colombia. The aim is to examine the interplay between two particular basis of social hierarchy: prestige as opposed to control of basic resources and wealth, through a 700 years of cultural sequence. Several lines of evidence (ceramics, fauna, tombs and spindle whorls) were analyzed to compare the extent of wealth and specialized activities carried out at different residential units within and between periods of occupation. In addition, a correspondence between the spatial organization of the settlement and the social and economic organization of its inhabitants is proposed. With the analysis of these information the nature and changes of bases of social hierarchy is reconstructed.
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