North and South in the ancient Central Andes: Contextualizing the archaeological record with evidence from linguistics and molecular anthropology
The ancient Central Andes, rather than being a single unified cultural block, comprised distinct Northern and Southern interaction spheres reflecting more intense interactions within each region than between them. This north-south structure, discernible in archaeological, linguistic, and genetic data, appears around 2,000 years ago, suggesting that demographic population structure might predate the development of complex cultural identities and political organization.
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