Building techniques for the ancestors: an analysis of the choice of techniques used in the architecture of chullpas, between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries in the Puna de Jujuy (Argentina)

RIVET, M. CAROLINA

Londres

Congreso; Technology: Ideology, Economics and Power in the Andes; 2015

University College London

This presentation aims toanalyze the results of archaeological investigations at a number of sites withlate pre-hispanic and colonial occupation in the area of Coranzulí (Puna de Jujuy, northwestern Argentina).These sites are characterized by the presence of more than one hundred chullpas, positioned in relation toresidential areas and agricultural infrastructure. The research conductedinvolved an architectural analysis, especially focusing on the study of thebuilding techniques, to investigate the logics and associated sensoryengagement that may have been associated with these structures. The studyconsiders topics such as the disposition of building materials and thetechnical gestures used in construction to identify the actions and presence ofdifferent builders.The association between chullpas and ancestors means that thetechniques selected in terms of morphology, materials and finishings, were producingand reinforcing the concepts that defined these ancestors and the type ofrelationships that their descendants continued to engage in. This requires usto take as a basis the fact that the technical choices are culturally definedand, therefore, cannot be dissociated from the frames of meaning in which theywere inserted.