TERRITORIES AMONG HUNTER-GATHERERS AND THE RITUAL DIMENSION OF LANDSCAPES: THE CENTRAL PATAGONIAN PLATEAU (ARGENTINA)

CARDEN NATALIA

Before Farming

Waspress

Lugar: Liverpool; Año: 2008 p. 1 - 19

1476-4261

This paper discusses rock art as a form of communication within hunter-gatherer social relationships. The recognition of what kinds of places were preferentially demarcated is essential to the comprehension of the social and symbolic dimensions of the landscape. The main argument developed in the article is that rock art played a fundamental role in territorial demarcations, and that ritual practices were a key element in this process. Thus, one of the methodological issues that are addressed concerns the identification of sacred places linked to rituals, which can be understood as part of wider religious systems. In this context, the analysed rock art sites are treated as singular places which can be integrated as signifying systems deeply immersed within hunter-gatherer cosmological frameworks. For this objective, five archaeological sites with rock-carvings will be compared. They belong to two archaeological localities from two different sectors (lower and upper course) of the same temporary basin in a volcanic and semiarid landscape from southern Patagonia The relationships discussed are framed in the social dynamics that characterize the late Holocene in Patagonia. The main analysed aspects are: the location of the motifs and their visibility patterns, the relationships of the rock art sites considering their similarities and differences, the intervisibility between these sites, the animal and human representations and the rituality of the landscapes.