The Peruvian Co-Tradition

Abstract

The culture area concept as developed by Wissler has had only limited applicability to archaeology, since it depends too much on specific elements or traits, is too heavily weighted by subsistence, is not sharply enough defined, is too inclusive, and is too static in time. Although Wissler divided the New World into a number of archaeological culture areas, these have not been very meaningful, since they lump gross elements with total disregard for time, which results more in confusion than in significant classification.