Ancient South American FoodwaysThe domestication of plants and animals has long been indicated as one of the primary causal factors in population increases and sociopolitical complexity. Evidence of plant domestication in South America is believed to have occurred initially 8,000 BC, evidence of squash in Ecuador (Pearsall 2008:107), and 500 years earlier, lima beans and chili peppers being exploited (Lynch 1983 : 125-6). . However, it took several millennia for intensive plant manipulation to become a common subsistence practice. The archaic transition that occurred around 3000 BC was identifiable by “widespread subsistence agriculture, experimental agriculture, seasonal nomadism giving way to sedentary lifestyles, and technological proliferation” (Lynch 1983: 91). At the end of the Paleo-Indian period, the shift to agriculture and cultivation reached its peak during the pre-Pottery period 2500 BC. Quinoa, corn, squash, squash, potato, beans and lucuma were now used for agricultural domestication - the formative stage according to the Lynch (1983:91) verse. By 2000 BC, there was "intensive agriculture, total sedentary lifestyle, class systems, corporate work projects, and temple-based religions." Before and until the advent of irrigated agriculture, the diet of South Americans and their main source of protein was of marine origin. “Fishing is almost as old in the New World as the presence of humans: seafood, not just agriculture, was responsible for the first formation of Andean civilization” (Isbell, Sandweiss, Silver 2008: 147). Small maritime villages ultimately provided a mutual trading system for large, complex cities: exchanging maritime resources for agricultural products. The advent of irrigated agriculture was vital in the formation of complex villages. The trajectory of irrigation in the South...... middle of paper...... inside and outside the temple precincts, Chavin possessed features that would become the norm in later Andean cities” (Bruhns, 1994: 131). Additionally, Chiripa is located near the southern end of Lake Titicaca (600-100 BC), as a model for later temple structures, particularly the Kidder Temple at Pucara. The site consisted of rectangular buildings around a central patio and each site in the complex housed a rectangular temple below. Consistencies between Nazca settlement patterns indicate urban planning strategies and monitoring systems. The Inca culture derived from Tiwanaku. The Inca Empire expanded from its core, Cuzco, into the Cuzco Valley. Incan's ability to cultivate and harvest resulted in food storage techniques that could last 3 to 7 years. The Incas took the crops of these conquered nations and cultivated them ensuring an abundance of seasonal differentiation..