ABSTRACT
What roles did women have among the Moche? Did they stay home and care for their offspring as their partners spent the day in hunting, warfare, and village construction? Were they the shadows behind great men or did they also achieve positions of economic prestige and political importance? What effect did the transition to a state society have on Mochica women’s status? Although not as famous as the Incas, Peru’s Mochica culture (CE 100-750) has become internationally known from the study of their elaborate material culture, more recently highlighted in media coverage of the discovery of the royal tombs of Sipán during the 1980s and 1990s. Although often considered realistic, Moche pottery leaves much about daily life to our imagination and it is important to remember that the way in which we imagine the distant past is too often based on opinions that have been repeated without thorough evaluation.
