ABSTRACT
The coast of Peru is a single environmental zone: north to south a narrow strip of desert bisected by short rivers carries melt water from the Andes to the Pacific Ocean. As archaeologists who have applied a neo-evolutionary perspective to a number of archaeological data sets over the past 20 years or more, we confess that the Late Archaic florescence in the Norte Chico stoutly resists classification as band, tribe, chiefdom, or state. Among the alternatives to consider is peer-polity interaction, first outlined by Renfrew. Renfrew's model of peer-polities suggests there were regions in which a number of settlements grew in size and existed in a single cultural and economic milieu, sharing some, but not all, characteristics. The Norte Chico region of Peru consists of four closely spaced river valleys: the Fortaleza, Pativilca, Supe, and Huaura. The Norte Chico consisted of a number of interacting units that based on their architectural components.
