The Chavín Ruins

So, I'll get pictures of the ruins up when I can--I moved hotels today,
to a place that has a better cellular connection (the other place was
behind the mountain, although 50' away, the cell reception was
excellent), but the internet is still moving (rather, stumbling), like
one of the inebriated gentlemen I saw lurching up the main drag in town
here this evening.

The Chavín culture is pretty old--we're taking about 900BC or so to
600AD, if I remember correctly--a lot older than the Inca culture, which
was only a couple hundred years when a pig herder named Pizarro showed
up in 1520 or so and screwed everything up for those folks.

Typically, when I go to places like this, I like to buy a guidebook to
the side and skip the guided tour--I get bored by movies, television
programs, and guided tours of archaeological ruins. Here in Chavín,
there are almost no such services--not even a museum shop, but I was
able to buy a pirated copy (that is, photocopied and spiral bound) of
what I understand to be *the* work for popular consumption on
Chavín--_Chavin and the Origins of Andean Civilizatin_, by Richard
Burger, from an indigenous guy hanging around the front gate. A pretty
good deal, for 10 soles. I would feel guilty, if I had seen anything
else for sale along the lines of a book there, but the only things you
can get are knickknacks...

Anyways, one theory about the origin of the Chavín society goes
something like this:

1. An egalitarian group of semi-nomadic pastoralists and farmers
settles in the region, and everything goes great.
2. Somebody figures out that they can gain a privileged position by
claiming access to divine knowledge.
3. It works.
4. The resulting stratified civilization finds that, as a relatively
well-organized group along a major trade route between the coast and the
jungle. they have the power to tax traders traveling through their
territory.
5. A good time is had by all.

An interesting story about the way in which beliefs (correct or not) can
have an impact on rationality. It probably seemed rational for the
peasants to pay tribute to the priest-kings of Chavín, since the
priest-kings would call down the wrath of god on their heads if they
didn't. On the other hand, that doesn't seem very rational at all to
your average ethical monotheist. Or, for that matter, to the average
member of the cult of the market.

In this case, it does indeed look like there were benefits to most of
the local citizens of the resulting stratified society, but in many
cases (the Inca come to mind), the benefits may have been small, indeed.

Of course, I disclaim any understanding of this area. I'm no
archaeologist. I study modern local governments.