Dr. Jerry Moore, professor of anthropology, has been selected to serve as editor of Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology, beginning in March and will serve for a minimum of two years. The publication, whose name means “antiquity” in the Incan language, is the oldest and most prestigious peer-reviewed journal on Andean studies, and was established in 1963 by the late John H. Rowe, a leading specialist on Peruvian archaeology at the University of California, Berkeley.
“Over the last 47 years, Ñawpa Pacha has been the journal of record for archaeological research in this broad region with a complex and profound prehistory,” says Moore. “I am proud to contribute to that historic mission.”
Moore, whose research has included taking CSU Dominguez Hills students to experience prehistory studies in Tumbes, Peru says that the study of Andean archaeology has undergone broad and profound changes in the last several decades. He says that he looks forward to inviting more South American scholars of archaeology from South America to publish their findings in Ñawpa Pacha.
“There are many more South Americans who are involved in archaeological research, and that has changed the focus and practice of Andean archaeology,” says Moore. “The involvement of South Americans in Andean archaeology brings new perspectives into the field. People connect to the cultural and historical legacies in fundamentally different ways than, for example, I do as a foreign archaeologist working in South America. I want Ñawpa Pacha to highlight these new perspectives on the ancient Andes.”
“In addition, more and more areas have been explored,” he says. “Our understanding of the broad contours of Andean prehistory has been fundamentally reshaped over the last 50 years, with archaeologists applying new technologies and analytical methods to learn fascinating details about the past. And finally, we are beginning to perceive connections that ancient Andean peoples had with societies in other regions, such as with Pre-Hispanic Amazonian societies.”
Moore’s latest writings on Andean studies include “Making a Huaca: Memory and Praxis in Pre-Hispanic Far Northern Peru,” which appeared in the December issue of the Journal of Social Archaeology, and “Architecture, Settlement and Formative Developments in the Equatorial Andes: New Discoveries in the Department of Tumbes, Peru,” which was published last July in Latin American Antiquity.
For more information on the study of anthropology at CSU Dominguez Hills, click here.
