The contributions in this volume represent eight of the eighteen papers presented at the Third Annual Northeast Conference on Andean Archaeology and Ethnohistory (NCAAE), held at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, on October 27 and 28, 1984. In addition, the volume includes a paper by Patricia J. Netherly and Tom D. Dillehay that was presented at the Second NCAAE in 1983 and a paper by Netherly submitted in place of her presentation at the Third NCAAE.
The Northeast Conference is a continuing annual event designed to provide an opportunity for Andean scholars in northeastern North America to present current research in an informal setting. The Publication Series, of which this is the third and final volume (see: D.H. Sandweiss, editor, 1983, Investigations of the Andean Past, Ithaca: Cornell Latin American Studies Program; and D.P. Kvietok and D.H. Sandweiss, editors, 1985, Recent Studies in Andean Prehistory and Protohistory, Ithaca: Cornell Latin American Studies Program), has given us the opportunity to distribute these reports relatively quickly and inexpensively to a wider audience of Andeanists and other interested scholars. Following this volume, the Publication Series will be replaced by ANDEAN PAST, a series of edited and reviewed collections of articles on Andean archaeology and ethnohistory. ANDEAN PAST is open to submission from any scholar working in the Andes, but we also hope to continue publishing many of the reports presented at the Northeast Conferences. The Northeast Conference on Andean Archaeology and Ethnohistory is the official sponsor of ANDEAN PAST.
The assistance of a number of individuals and institutions was essential in organizing the Third Annual NCAAE and in preparing this volume. The Department of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, provided financial support for the Conference. Donald A. Proulx organized the meeting and kindly gave us permission to publish the reports. We are particularly grateful to the Cornell Latin American Studies Program (LASP) and its director, Thomas H. Holloway, for their continuing support of the Northeast Conference and its publications. The Fifth Annual NCAAE will be held at Cornell and sponsored by LASP, as was the original conference in 1982. Lourdes Brache of LASP has been consistently helpful and very patient with the constant invasion of her office in pursuit of the mundane details of publication. Finally, we thank the authors of the papers included in this volume for their energy and goodwill in preparing their manuscripts for publication.