Yutopian: Archaeology, Ambiguity, and the Production of Knowledge in Northwest Argentina

Around 400 BCE, inhabitants of the Southern Andes took up a sedentary lifestyle that included the practice of agriculture. Settlements were generally solitary or clustered structures with walled agricultural fields and animal corrals, and the first small villages appeared in some regions. Surprisingly, people were also producing and circulating exotic goods: polychrome ceramics, copper and gold ornaments, bronze bracelets and bells. To investigate the apparent contradiction between a lack of social complexity and the broad circulation of elaborated goods, archaeologist Joan Gero co-directed a binational project to excavate the site of Yutopian, an unusually well-preserved Early Formative village in the mountains of Northwest Argentina. In Yutopian, Gero describes how archaeologists from the United States and Argentina worked with local residents to uncover the lifeways of the earliest sedentary people of the region. Gero foregounds many experiential aspects of archaeological fieldwork that are usually omitted in the archaeological literature: the tedious labor and constraints of time and personnel, the emotional landscape, the intimate ethnographic settings and Andean people, the socio-politics, the difficult decisions and, especially, the role that ambiguity plays in determining archaeological meanings. Gero's unique approach offers a new model for the site report as she masterfully demonstrates how the decisions made in conducting any scientific undertaking play a fundamental role in shaping the knowledge produced in that project.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgments Frameworks 1. Introduction 2. Framework: Knowledge production at Yutopian 3. Framework: Ambiguity and the lust for certitude Project Context 4. Narrative: Project origins in a British steak dinner 5. Socio-politics: Finding Northwest Argentina 6. Narrative: Archaeologists and lugareÑos meet at Yutopian 7. Backstory: Chronology in Northwest Argentina 8. Argument: Ceramic sequences and social processes 9. Narrative: Why excavate at Yutopian? 10. Socio-politics: Should North American archaeologists dig in Argentina? Starting to Dig 11. Argument: The positionality of practice 12. Episode: Digging test pits 13. Raw data: What the test pits told us 14. Narrative: The incredible Pozo de Prueba 18 15. Episode: Extending test pit excavations 16. Andean ways: Inadvertent human remains 17. Episode: Opening Estructura Uno 18. Raw data: Inventory of artifact counts and special finds from Units 300, 301 and 302 19. Narrative: Emotional moments 20. Andean ways: The rodeo 21. Argument: Excavation forms Estructura Dos 22. Narrative: Coming and going 23. Episode: Expectations and excavations in Estructura Dos 24. Narrative: Los Hermanos 25. Raw data: Inventory of special finds from Estructura Dos 26. Narrative: Why was Estructura Dos disappointing? 27. Backstory: Why live in a semi-subterranean house? Estructura Uno 28. Episode: Excavating Estructura Uno 29. Descriptive data: A tour of the occupation floor of Estructura Uno 30. Raw data: Inventory of special and general finds from Estructura Uno, Units 303–306 31. Major ambiguity: Metallurgy in the house? 32. Argument: How the gendered household works 33. Andean ways: Buy the cage and get the chicken 34. Episode: Analysis in the field Estructura Tres 35. Narrative: Arrivals, decisions, decisions! 36. Backstory: Andean ethnobotany and flotation at Yutopian 37. Episode: Excavating Estructura Tres 38. Raw data: Inventory of special finds from Estructura Tres 39. Narrative: The peculiar pits of Estructura Tres 40. Andean ways: Honoring Pachamama Interpreting NÚcleo Uno 41. Episode: Exploring NÚcleo Uno's shared patio 42. Descriptive data: The square feature in the round patio 43. Descriptive data: The entranceways of NÚcleo Uno 44. Narrative: The life history of NÚcleo Uno 45. Cooking data: Changing patterns of lithic consumption in NÚcleo Uno: Chalcedony and obsidian 46. Narrative: How unique is NÚcleo Uno at Yutopian? 47. Backstory: How unique is NÚcleo Uno in the world? Estructura Once and the Issue of Remodeling Houses 48. Episode: The call of Estructura Once 49. Andean ways: Eating quirquincho (armadillo) 50. Raw data: Diagnostic ceramics by level from Estructura Once 51. Descriptive data: Remodeling and repositioning the doorways 52. Narrative: What did we learn from Estructura Once? 53. Backstory: What about the saucer-shaped house floors? 54. Episode: Pozos de Prueba 12 and 12a Estructura Cuatro 55. Episode: Opening up Estructura Cuatro (1996) 56. Data in two modalities: The tri-lobate hearth 57. Descriptive data: The hearth occupation level in Estructura Cuatro 58. Narrative: Last day fervor in Estructura Cuatro 59. Socio-politics: Good-byes 60. Episode: Estructura Cuatro excavations in 1998: The lower occupation 61. Raw data: Inventory of special finds from Estructura Cuatro 62. Descriptive data: The cache pit 63. Andean ways: ChaÑar drinks Looking for NÚcleo Dos 64. Narrative: Where was Estructura Cuatro's entranceway? 65. Episode: Searching for Cinco and NÚcleo Dos 66. Raw Data: Inventory of special finds from Estructura Cinco 67. Narrative: Radical remodeling in NÚcleo Dos 68. Argument: Ritual and quotidian 69. Narrative: A lab for all reasons 70. Socio-politics: Yutopian in the community Understanding Yutopian as an Early Formative Settlement 71. Raw data: Comparative characteristics of Yutopian structures 72. Raw data: Radiocarbon chronology 73. Narrative: The Formative settlement at Yutopian 74. Backstory: Plazas and a "public" 75. Argument: Yutopian's boundaries and the site map 76. Socio-politics: Why Yutopian has so little Formative context 77. Narrative: Entranceway ideologies 78. Andean ways: Water management at Yutopian Data from the Experts 79. Data from the experts: Agricultural practices at Yutopian (with Jack Rossen) 80. Data from the experts: Plants and diet, now and then (with Jack Rossen) 81. Data from the experts: Phytolith facts 82. Data from the experts: Faunal remains (with AndrÉs Izeta) 83. Data from the experts: Ceramic forms and designs (with M. Fabiana Bugliani) 84. Cooking data: Chalcedony and obsidian, part 2 85. Data: Stone tools from other angles 86. Data: Cross-mends and what they tell us 87. Data: Beads and spindle whorls Cardonal by Comparison 88. Narrative: The "other" Early Formative site: Cardonal 89. Argument: Testing archaeology and its methods 90. Socio-politics: Traveling to Cardonal 91. Episode: A short field season testing Cardonal house structures 92. Raw data: Special finds from the 2004 Cardonal field season 93. Socio-politics: North-South collaborations in archaeology 94. Backstory: Grinding stones (conanas, cutanas, morteros) and the holes in them 95. Episode: Later work at Cardonal 96. Andean ways: Llama caravans and long-distance exchange 97. Narrative: Cardonal and Yutopian Wrap-Ups and Postscripts 98. Wrap-up: Putting the project to bed 99. Postscript: Early Formative society: Where's the monumental? 100. Follow-through: References cited

About the Author :
A pioneer of archaeological theory, Joan M. Gero was Professor Emerita of Anthropology at American University in Washington, DC, and Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History. She coedited The Socio-politics of Archaeology and Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory and was head series editor of One World Archaeology books.

Review :
"Unlike any monograph I have ever read, it is truly interesting beyond its summary of findings. Each time I pick it up, I find it hard to put down….It is entirely unique." (Vice-president of World Archaeological Congress (WAC))