While long-distance interaction through reciprocity networks and high mobility foraging had long existed, it is likely that, along with the development of long-distance caravan traditions commenced a period of unprecedented regularity in interaction over distance. Building on the argument that due to the importance of exotic goods, those who possess such goods, and the ability to transcend regional boundaries as discussed in Section 2.2.2 (Appadurai 1986: 33;Helms 1992: 159), caravan drivers may have been among the early agents able to traverse regional boundaries in a context of increased circumscription. From the perspective of "social distance" using Sahlins' (1972) terms, regular caravan traffic represents a change in the scale of integration extending the "tribal sector" (balanced reciprocity), as well as augmenting the interaction with the "intertribal sector" (balanced or negative reciprocity). Changes are also expected in distance-dependent formulas such as Hayden's (1998) "prestige technology" where goods that were formerly laborious to transport in quantity became increasingly available resulting, over the long term, in a decline in the exotic associations for goods like obsidian.

There is little detailed evidence with which to evaluate the social position of early caravan drivers, but one should consider the socially integrating role of caravans over the larger region (Dillehay and Nuñez 1988), as well as the status and influence that may be accorded such caravan drivers. Itinerant peddlers, roaming herbalists, and other travelers are also common in the south-central Andes, and these persons could have transported goods widely. Furthermore human bearers are well documented in the Andes and in contexts with tight and perhaps exploitative control of labor, human porters can be organized into extremely efficient transport teams. Regular caravan transport is, however, a distinctive development because caravans represent a relatively low-cost mode of transport that is associated with staples and bulk items (Nielsen 2000: 514) and to the extent that caravan transport became linked to key economic cycles like agricultural production, caravans became recurrent and perhaps anticipated along these regular routes.

Changes in the scale of interaction were linked to larger economic transformations that included small-scale food production and the creation of surpluses, widespread technological change, early social inequalities, and greater sedentism; all processes that potentially contributed to the importance of caravan linkages. The integrating role of early caravans, and the position and status accorded to caravan drivers in this process, deserves further consideration.