Rooting to the land. Material and symbolic differentiation in Northwestern Argentina.

SCATTOLIN, MARÍA CRISTINA

Washington

Simposio; 2023-2024 Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian Symposium "Out of the Shadows: The Beginnings of South American Civilization"; 2023

Dumbarton Oaks

Pathways of social change during the first millennium CE are a subject of debate in the archeology of the Northwest of Argentina. Here the emergence of differences in access to material and symbolic goods among village communities of the Formative Period is focused. The reflection addresses processes of regional hierarchical integration, which manifest a course of complexity. Different ways of differentiating space and of investing material and symbolic resources have been distinguished in architecture and in material goods, especially ceramics. The emphasis on some of these investment modes produced different ways of ranking social landscape and community architecture. The aim is to interpret the use of material culture in the Southern Calchaquí Valleys to understand the transition from the first village societies to later formations. These formative villages offer an opportunity to consider the criteria of material and symbolic differentiation that were considered for their archaeological study and subject them to a critical look.2023-2024 Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian Symposium “Out of the Shadows: The Beginnings of South American Civilization,” organized by Tom D. Dillehay and Eduardo Neves.