Anthropology

Daiana Rivas-Tello

Research Interests Andes, Historical archaeology, Colonialism, Landscape studies, Ceramic analysis, Craft production

Biography

Daiana Rivas-Tello is an anthropological archaeologist and Ph.D. candidate in the Anthropology Department at Brown University. She received her M.A. in Anthropology from McMaster University (Canada) in 2017 and her B.A. in Archaeology and Latin American Studies from the University of Toronto (Canada) in 2013.

Her work explores the intersections of imperialism, craft production, and Indigenous persistence in the Andes. She is the principal investigator and co-director of the A.H.E.A.D. Archaeological Project (Arqueología de Huancas y Estudios de Alfarería Doméstica). With the support from the Wenner-Gren Foundation and in collaboration with the community of Huancas (Amazonas, Peru), she traces the history of Huancas, a former mitmaq (a community forcibly relocated by the Inka), and their potting tradition from the Late Horizon (ca. 1470- 1535) to Spanish Colonial (ca. 1535- 1823) period and into the present. Through this work, she explores how Andean communities respond to colonial structures, and the role crafting plays in maintaining identity.