A01=Parker VanValkenburgh
Alluvium and Empire
Archaeology of colonialism
Archaeology of empire
Author_Parker VanValkenburgh
Category=JBSL11
Category=NHTQ
Category=NK
Category=NKL
Colonial environmental change
Colonial landscapes
Environmental anthropology
Environmental history
Environmental transformation
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
forthcoming
Geoarchaeology
Historical ecology
Human-environment interaction
Imperial expansion
Landscape archaeology
Riverine environments
Sediment and society
Product details
- ISBN 9780816557073
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 30 Jun 2026
- Publisher: University of Arizona Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Alluvium and Empire uncovers the stories of Indigenous people who were subject to one of the largest waves of forced resettlement in human history, the ReducciÓn General. In 1569, Spanish administrators attempted to move at least 1.4 million Indigenous people into a series of planned towns called reducciones, with the goal of reshaping their households, communities, and religious practices. However, in northern Peru’s Zaña Valley, this process failed to go as the Spanish had planned. In Alluvium and Empire, Parker VanValkenburgh explores both the short-term processes and long-term legacies of Indigenous resettlement in this region, drawing particular attention to the formation of complex relationships between Indigenous communities, imperial institutions, and the dynamic environments of Peru’s north coast.
The volume draws on nearly ten years of field and archival research to craft a nuanced account of the ReducciÓn General and its aftermath. Written at the intersections of history and archaeology, Alluvium and Empire at once bears witness to the violence of Spanish colonization and highlights Indigenous resilience in the aftermath of resettlement. In the process, VanValkenburgh critiques previous approaches to the study of empire and models a genealogical approach that attends to the open-ended—and often unpredictable—ways in which empires take shape.
The volume draws on nearly ten years of field and archival research to craft a nuanced account of the ReducciÓn General and its aftermath. Written at the intersections of history and archaeology, Alluvium and Empire at once bears witness to the violence of Spanish colonization and highlights Indigenous resilience in the aftermath of resettlement. In the process, VanValkenburgh critiques previous approaches to the study of empire and models a genealogical approach that attends to the open-ended—and often unpredictable—ways in which empires take shape.
Parker VanValkenburgh is Stanley J. Bernstein Assistant Professor of Social Sciences in the Department of Anthropology at Brown University. He has co-edited the volumes ArqueologÍa HistÓrica en el Peru and Territoriality in Archaeology.
