Erika Brant

Archaeology

Regional Focus: The Andes

Topical interests: Complex societies, ideological change, landscape archaeology, post-collapse regenerative processes, craft production.

I hold a BA degree in anthropology from UCLA (2006), and a MA from Cal State University, Northridge (2009). My MA research was conducted in Tarapaca Valley, Northern Chile where I examined rock art sites as a means for understanding the economic and ideological reorganization that followed Tiwanaku's collapse. Shifting my regional focus slightly, my doctoral research will focus on Late Intermediate Period (A.D. 1000-1450) Collao ritual architecture in the Titicaca Basin of southern Peru. While problematizing Spanish characterization of the Colla ethnic group as a unified political body, my work in Peru will also consider the role of religious rituals in forging regional coalitions during the tumultuous years after Tiwanaku's decline