Reevaluating Archaeological Discourses about the Moche of Northern Peru

Clicks: 1
ID: 314401
2026
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal

Ranked #1,039 of 1,517 articles by views in Oxford University Press eBooks

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 1,517 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
Abstract This article reviews the main trajectories of archaeological discourses about the Moche (200–900 AD) of northern Peru, from the inception of this field until 2020—when this article was written. Recognized by their soaring temples decorated with multicolor facades, lavish elite tombs, and profuse narrative art, the Moche have been a subject of intense scholarly investigation since the start of the twentieth century. Interpretative models about the Moche have traditionally relied on idealized perceptions developed by early scholars, within which material culture and artistic achievements were understood exclusively as orthodox expressions of a state-controlled political and religious apparatus. These models have more recently been shifting toward bottom-up approaches that emphasize, instead, the particularities and singularities of the Moche presence in each valley and community of northern Peru. In this chapter, we examine the Moche phenomenon in three ways, which are in continuous definition in light of new archaeological and art-historical evidence: as (1) a sociopolitical structure, (2) a religious ideology, and (3) a particular way of being in the world. We highlight how recent trajectories have moved attention from object-centered to subject-centered approaches to ways of being. This has enabled scholars to refocus attention on issues of social life, lived experience, and materiality—over the conventional paradigms of politics, power, and violence that have long defined Moche studies. New theoretical trends, accompanied by methodological innovations derived from the sciences and the humanities, have allowed Moche studies to continue to be a fruitful and intellectually promising subdiscipline within American archaeology.
Reference Key
openalex_W7161939624 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Luis A. Muro Ynoñán, Lisa Trever
Journal Oxford University Press eBooks
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195391367.013.52
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195391367.013.52
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.