Quinoa, potatoes, and llamas fueled emergent social complexity in the Lake Titicaca Basin of the Andes
Abstract
Food production systems are critical components in the emergence of complex socioecological systems. In the Andes, societal complexity has often been related to the increasing production and consumption of maize by elites, but the importance of highland cultivated crops, such as potatoes, one of the most cultivated crops in the world, and quinoa, presently recognized as a "superfood," remains largely underappreciated. Using stable isotopes including compound-specific amino acids, we reconstruct the diets of people living in southern Lake Titicaca, where the Tiwanaku state emerged. Over time, locally produced potatoes, quinoa, and llamas, by means of increasingly intensive practices, facilitated long-term food security, which sustained population growth, contributed to increasing sociopolitical complexity, and facilitated resiliency through episodes of significant climatic variation.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- December 2021
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.2113395118
- Bibcode:
- 2021PNAS..11813395M