T he last years have witnessed the increasing importance of the Peruvian North Central Coast in the discussion of the rise and devel- opment of social complexity within the Andes. This is due to recent survey and excavations (Shady and Leyva 2003; Vega-Centeno 2005), as well as a sig- nificant number of new radiocarbon dates (Haas et al. 2004a; Shady et al. 2001; Vega-Centeno 2005:189–199), which have revealed the existence of large architectural complexes throughout the Fortaleza, Pativilca, and Supe valleys, either “dat- ing to” or “during” the late Archaic period (3000–1500 B.C., also referred to as the late Pre- ceramic period). Previous explanatory models for this phenom- enon were formulated on the basis of surface evi- dence (Haas et al. 2004b; Shady et al. 2000) and have remained largely unmodified even in the face of rapidly accumulating data from excavations (Haas and Creamer 2006; Shady 2006a). This para- doxical situation arises because these models are built upon the notion that the massive platform mounds that characterize the sites under consider- ation could be evaluated in quantitative terms, as energy outcomes of corporate projects conducted by centralized leadership. There has been little interest in the nature of the original architectural design of these mounds and the relevance of such design in the development of sociopolitical dynam- ics. In addition, although the ritual nature of these buildings is often noted, the nature of ritual activ- ities has been seldom addressed in order to evalu- ate forms of social complexity. As a consequence, new architectural data from excavations had little relevance on the models’ testing. In this text, I stress the need to address archi- tectural design as an effective means to define the social and political organization of the human groups that were responsible for the construction of the early large-scale buildings of the Fortaleza, CERRO LAMPAY: ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN AND HUMAN INTERACTION IN THE NORTH CENTRAL COAST OF PERU Rafael Vega-Centeno Recent fieldwork concerning the late Preceramic/late Archaic period on the PeruvianNorth-Central Ccoast has revealed the existence of large architectural complexes, which scholars interpret as indicative of social complexity. This article is especially concerned with architectural design as an effective means to define social and political organization at Cerro Lampay. It concludes that there was not a highly formalized hierarchy but that power positions within the community could have been negotiated through ritual practices that included the dual organization of participants. It is highly probable that the residents of the North Central Coast were in constant and intense interaction during the late Archaic, which may have resulted in displays of competitive emulationin ritual settings. Recientes investigaciones en la costa nor-central peruana han revelado la existencia de grandes complejos arquitectónicos para el Período Precerámico Tardío/Arcaico Tardío, que son considerados por diversos investigadores como indicadores de complejidad social. Este trabajo enfatiza el análisis del diseño arquitectónico como medio efectivo para definir la organi- zación social y política en Cerro Lampay. Se concluye que no hubo una jerarquía altamente formalizada sino que las posi- ciones de poder dentro de la comunidad podrían haber sido negociadas mediante prácticas rituales que incluyeron la organización dual de los participantes. Es muy probable que los moradores de la costa nor-central estuviesen en interacción constante e intensa durante el Arcaico Tardío, hecho que pudo haber resultado en los despliegues de emulación competitiva en contextos rituales. Rafael Vega-Centeno  Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Ciudad Universitaria, Pabellón José Carlos Mariátegui, Lima 1, Peru (svegac@umsm.edu.pe) Latin American Antiquity 21(2), 2010, pp. 115–145 Copyright ©2010 by the Society for American Archaeology 115 Delivered by http://saa.metapress.com Society for American Archaeology - Latin American Antiquity access (804-58-837) IP Address: 200.37.4.184 Tuesday, August 26, 2014 3:16:14 PM