portada y resumen tesis sol_etd

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RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION AND POLITICAL STRUCTURE IN

PRE-HISPANIC SOUTHERN COSTA RICA

by

Ricardo Felipe Sol Castillo

A.B., Universidad de Costa Rica, 1996

Lic., Universidad de Costa Rica, 2000

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of

Arts and Sciences in part ial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh

2013


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UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

This dissertation was presented

by

Ricardo Felipe Sol Castillo

It was defended on

October 22, 2013

and approved by

Dr. Marc Bermann, Associate Professor, Anthropology

Dr. Olivier de Montmollin, Associate Professor, Anthropology

Dr. John Frechione, Associate Director, Center for Latin American Studies

Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Robert D. Drennan, Distinguished Professor, Anthropology


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Copyright by Ricardo Felipe Sol C.

2013


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Ritual and religion have received considerable attention as influential factors in the development of

political complexity in anthropological theory. The present investigation evaluates the role of religion in

supra-local polity formation in the Upper Trraba Basin of southern Costa Rica. Regional-scale evidence

on population, soils, topography, petroglyphs, funerary features, prestige items and buffer zones was

collected through an 85 km2 intensive survey. The data was used to explore the relationships between

political organization and demographic changes, agricultural productivity, ritual and warfare.

Following an initial demographic explosion beginning at 300 B.C., small polities rapidly emerge

and limited wealth accumulation and inter-polity raiding characterize the dynamics of that period. After

this, population numbers remain relatively stable during the whole sequence up to Spanish conquest, but

around 1000 A.D., a regional polity emerges with the local community of Rivas as its political center.

Lack of buffer zones and a dispersed population pattern evidence that warfare could not have

been a prominent factor in late period political organization. A regional perspective indicates that religion

and ritual were not the main forces attracting populations to nucleated centers. Burial rituals played an

important role in enforcing kinship rules and the general social integration of the region. Late period

petroglyphs appear associated with private and secluded rituals throughout all communities. Rivas was

not excluded from these dynamics, but no evidence that it played a central role within this system was

found. An agricultural emphasis in the cultivation of alluvial lands and preliminary evidence of local

exchange suggest that a more productive economic system with a higher intensity of exchange between

local communities, as well as craft specialization, developed during the Chiriqu period (1000-1550 A.D.).

The emergence of Rivas, a larger and more powerful central community than any that had

existed before, seems to be strongly related to changes in economics, on the one hand, and kinship and

social relations, on the other. Important changes in the organization and technology of agricultural

production, the decentralization of funerary rituals, and an increase in household size coincide with the

emergence of this unprecedented community.

RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION AND POLITICAL STRUCTURE IN

PRE-HISPANIC SOUTHERN COSTA RICA

Ricardo Felipe Sol C., PhD

University of Pittsburgh, 2013


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