Mapping at Malata
Mapping at the site of Malata in the Colca Valley, Peru
Steve Wernke
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN
s.wernke@vanderbilt.edu
Office: 615/343-2518
As an archaeologist and ethnohistorian of the Andean region of South America, my research interests center on the dynamics of political and economic organization, religion, land use, and imperial-local relations in both prehispanic and colonial contexts. I am especially interested in how community organization acts as a mediator between local interest groups and expansionist states (such as the Inka and the Spanish colonial states), and how landscape acts as a mediator between humans and the environment. Methodologically, much of my work to aims to synthesize archaeological and documentary data sets in a common, GIS-based spatial framework. My most recent research investigates the local experience of missionization during the early years following the Spanish invasion of Peru. To date, most of my research is based in the Colca Valley, a major highland valley of the south central Andean highlands.

Latest Update: March, 2008