Ethnoarchaeological “calibration” of the archaeological record: Hain ritual and Selknam identity. Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

BOGDANOVIC I; PIQUE R., MANSUR M. E.

Roma

Congreso; V Convegno di Etnoarchelogia; 2010

Associazione Italiana di Etnoarcheologia

The archaeological record is a new reality, in which we can’t find remains of subjective stances of past communities. One of these subjective stances per excellence is the group identity. The critical use of ethnographical record as a valuable resource for this kind of information is tested in a research project concerning hunter-gatherer communities at the inland of the Tierra del Fuego, at the site Ewan. Two different structures were excavated and interpreted as ritual and domestic huts, belonging to Selknam people.  Detailed information about this ritual was provided by ethnographers who witnessed the last decades of indigenous groups life.  In this communication, we contrast the archaeological record of the site Ewan against available ethnographic information, in order to define a role of “Hain” in the self-perception of Selknam community and to find out eventual material pattern of their distinction from contemporary “others”.