Storage is an extended and variable practice which constitutes a key aspect for understanding economic strategies, social structures, and political negotiations in different cultural and temporal settings, but especially in the context of early village societies. Despite the fact that it was traditionally addressed as an evidence of the emergence of elites with the power to hoard and redistribute social surpluses, we herein address the role of storage where this social consequence was not recorded. | Journal of Anthropology and Archaeology June 2018, Vol. 6, , pp. 15-29 ISSN 2334-2420 (Print) 2334-2439 (Online) Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. Published by American Research Institute for Policy Development DOI: URL: Vegetable Storage Practices and the Reproduction of Household Autonomy in Early Village Contexts from Northwest Argentina Rocío M. Molar1 & Julián Salazar2 Abstract Storage is an extended and variable practice which constitutes a key aspect for understanding economic strategies, social structures, and political negotiations in different cultural and temporal settings, but especially in the context of early village societies. Despite the fact that it was traditionally addressed as an evidence of the emergence of elites with the power to hoard and redistribute social surpluses, we herein address the role of storage where this social consequence was not recorded. We present new archaeological data on Tafí valley early village vegetable storage practices and ethnoarchaeological information on household storage originated in the nearby Anfama valley. Domestic and productive architectural features, pottery assemblages, stored products and botanical microremains were analyzed in order to discuss surplus generation, vegetable products control and household autonomy in the context of South Andean early villagers. Keywords: Ethnoarchaeology, Storage, Northwest Argentina, Early Village Societies, Household. 1. Introduction The earliest agropastoral villages appeared in northwestern Argentina valleys around 2500 years ago. Over the next 1500 years, commonly referred to as Formative period (Olivera, 2001), several micro-regions witnessed the onset, growth, and abandonment of clustered households and village settlements. The development of Andean crop agriculture, llama herding demographic growth, sedentarism, and the aggregation of people set up novel problems, resources, techniques and
