| The study of alternative leadership strategies has become a major avenue for tracing the development of institutionalized inequality in complex societies across the globe. In the Lake Titicaca Basin of Peru and Bolivia, the Late Formative period (500 B.C.--A.D. 400) is characterized by the development of two regional population centers, Pukara in the northwest and Tiwanaku in the southeast. The site of Pukara, the subject of the present study, is typically identified with the features of the Qalasaya complex, a series of massive terraced platforms with sunken, stone-lined structures, and the presence of sophisticated polychrome pottery and carved monoliths. In this study, the transformation of the site's central ceremonial district during the Late Formative is framed as a reflection of changes in leadership strategies and local responses to those changes. Based on architectural, artifact, and activity area data collected during excavations in 2001, I argue that the changing function of the central pampa, an open area surrounded by the monumental architecture of the Qalasaya complex and several artificial mounds, can be used to trace a shift from inclusive to exclusive leadership strategies at Pukara. The central pampa was originally used as a public space dedicated to the preparation and consumption of suprahousehold-level meals and was an integral element of inclusionary leadership strategies during the site's early development. Over time, as the monumental architecture of the Qalasaya was reconstructed and ritual activities became more restricted, the central pampa was "cut off" and relegated to the periphery of the ceremonial district. As elite interests shifted, reflecting trends towards exclusionary leadership strategies, commoners reacted by utilizing the central pampa for residential purposes, small-scale ritual, craft production, and other quotidian activities. These occupations are characterized by formal divisions of architectural spaces, increased diversity in activities performed, and differentiation of structure function. The transformation of the central pampa---from the monumental to the mundane---reflects both the motivations of early leaders and the responses of the local population over several centuries of site growth, development, and abandonment. |
