Asentamientos, conflicto y cambio social en el altiplano de Lípez (Potosí)

Abstract

Between AD 900 and the time of the European invasion, the population of Altiplano de Lípez (Potosí, Bolivia) experienced transformations in their lifeways that are reflected in important changes in the size, location, and internal structure of their resi- dential settlements. A critical step in this process took place around AD 1300, when defensive villages were built throughout the region. This phenomenon, that would respond to a state of endemic warfare in the South-Central Andes, was associated with the consolidation of supracommunity political structures and, probably, with the development of new principles of resource appropriation and social ranking. Conflicts may have been triggered by the severe droughts that affected the Andean highlands during this period, intensifying competition for the control of irrigated farnland.