The Lambayeque Valley Complex: Food and Culture in Context

The Spanish invasion and conquest of the Central Andes initiated two centuries of upheaval and fundamentally altered indigenous lives and cultures. However, decades of bioarchaeological research have underscored the variation in indigenous experiences in colonized communities and pointed to resilience despite often-horrific treatment at the hands of colonizers. This chapter revisits the overarching research questions posed in chapter “Introduction”, interpreting our paleopathological and isotopic results using the theoretical frameworks discussed in chapter “Theorizing Food and Power in the Ancient Andes”. Our results point to the likely persistence of traditional Muchik foodways despite the denigration of indigenous foods by the Spanish and adoption of European foods by some, but not all, indigenous households. This persistence in traditional foodways across the centuries points to resilience that continues to this day, which may prove invaluable in the centuries to come.