Discussion

There is solid evidence, then, for a significant intensification in the Taraco Peninsula communities' participation in a regional exchange network in the Middle Formative. There are also indications of the formation of something like a pan-Titicaca Basin exchange system at this time, in which the inhabitants of the Taraco Peninsula took part. It is important, however, to think about this exchange sphere in the larger context of the south-central Andean region.

It is possible that this olivine basalt was being traded from the western Basin. It was certainly being imported from outside the Taraco Peninsula. Probably, though, it was only a part of a much more elaborate trading system, other items of which have not been preserved in the Titicaca Basin environment. To the east of the Titicaca Basin, crossing the Cordillera Blanca, lie a series of warm, humid, middle-elevation valleys known as the yungas, or valles mesotermales. And beyond the yungas lies the rain forest itself, the selva. These two areas, the yungas and the selva, are the source of a number of items which have always been in demand in the cold, arid and high-altitude altiplano ([Browman 1981]: 414, [Murra 1968,Murra 1985]). Examples include cultivated and wild plants, such as coca, cotton, ají (chili peppers) and a variety of hallucinogenic drugs. I should also mention various animal products such as feline pelts and the brightly-colored plumage of tropical birds.

Today most trade between the yungas and the western Titicaca Basin passes through La Paz to Tiwanaku and across the Desaguadero River at the Peru/Bolivia border (see Figure 2.1). If, however, the little lake were dry the shortest route would pass from La Paz through the area of Chiripa and across the plains - now under water - to Yunguyu (Figure 6.8). Thus in the late Middle Formative (450-250 B.C.) the Taraco Peninsula may suddenly have found itself located on a major trade route, one that, if it existed before this time, had previously passed by some distance to the south. Thus, the Taraco Peninsula communities would have suddenly found themselves in a position of influence in a regional exchange system. Local leaders - if they did not mount trading expeditions themselves - certainly used their geographic importance to extract favorable terms from passing llama caravans, and so gained increased access to exotic goods, from both the yungas and the western Titicaca Basin.

The distribution of these exotic goods imported in large quantities - the olivine basalt from Chucuito being the only archaeologically visible item - almost certainly became incorporated into the system of competitive generosity by which political influence was established and maintained in these communities. As part of the same process, emerging leaders in the Taraco Peninsula villages came to depend to a greater or lesser degree on social contacts external to their own communities for the maintenance and reproduction of their authority ([Helms 1979,Helms 1993]). We may imagine that the distribution of these exotic hoes and other imported goods was incorporated into existing commensal institutions. Feasting came to include ``gifting'' as well. This growing dependence of local leaders on external exchange partners was to have significant repercussions, as I will discuss in the following chapter.