Ryan D. Smith
University of Pittsburgh
Homepage
I am doctoral candidate in the Anthropology Department at the University of Pittsburgh. I conduct archaeological research in Andean highlands of South America, focusing on the form and organization of inter-regional and inter-communal interaction before and after the rise of the Inca empire.
The eastern Andes of southern Peru hosted groups of various origins and identities, creating a complex multiethnic setting. As part of their strategies of statecraft and political domination, the Inca are particularly renowned for resettling colonists in the form of "ethnic enclaves" to this and other parts of Andes by the mid 15th century.
With financial support from a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, I am investigating the origins of multiethnicity along the upper eastern slopes of the Carabaya Province (Puno, Peru). Preliminary signs indicate populations began moving into this area from the adjacent highlands well into antiquity (at least by ~1000 BCE), meaning intense patterns of local and foreign interaction along the eastern slopes long preceded the development of strong, politically centralized state organizations such as the Inca. However, strong ethnic markers are not documented until the Late Intermediate Period (1000—1450 CE). It is also during this time that ethnic styles and their boundaries appear to be formally delimited for the first time, indicating new concerns with identity, territoriality, and resource control that provide enticing clues about the original forms of inter-ethnic interaction in the Andes.
You can read more about this and other work on my research page(coming soon)!
CONTACT INFORMATION
Ryan D. Smith
Department of Anthropology
3302 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
230 S. Bouquet St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
ryan.d.smith@pitt.edu