Cultures Of The Andean People example essay topic
At altitudes higher than 12,000 feet, crops could not be sustained. Short tough grass, was available, which the Andean people used for grazing of their ca meloid herds. The ca meloids was a staple used for cotton and meat. With the advent of successful agriculture, and expanded food supply, labor is freed up allowing for specialization of labor. This is the catalyst needed to start a complex hierarchy and religious, and belief system. The Cultures of the Andean people primarily developed around the arid coastline but were not limited to the fertile highlands.
The Tiahuanaco culture developed in the middle horizon period (600-1000 AD) in the highlands of the Andes. At an altitude of nearly 13,000 feet, Tiahuanaco, is located on the Titicaca basin, named after the mysterious postglacial lake that is present. A great religious cult developed here, and was the basis for later Inca religions. As farmland in the highlands became scarce, war and conflict arose primarily out of economic necessity for survivability. We can see the spread of cultures caused by conflict with the Huari people who have been found with the Tiahuanacan religion and pottery.
The Tiahuanaco and the Huari empires are the first pre Incan empires to develop in the Andes, and are an example of successful cultivation and settlement of civilization.