Bodies in contrast: Reflections on the treatment of the dead in two burials of 3,000 years BP (Cajon Valley, Northwest Argentina)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31048/1852.4826.v3.n1.5443Keywords:
funerary contexts, bodies, gestures, 3000 years BP, Northwestern ArgentinaAbstract
Two funerary contexts dated to 3.000 years B.P. from the southern Cajón Valley showed interesting contrasts as far as the treatment, disposition and association of the bodies with diverse objects is concerned. The first one is a multiple internment where several bodies were laid out mixed with one another without any anatomical articulation. These were associated to an anthropomorphic copper mask. The second one is the inhumation of a child in an extended position associated to a lithic bead and a copper pendant. Both contexts were set adjacent to each other though separated by symmetrical and opposed stone structures. Along with some perspectives suggested by the anthropology of the body and studies of materiality, I explore a first interpretation in which bodies are considered the axis of the analysis. The way bodies were treated –the obliteration or conservation of their anatomy, their association with objects that could refer to a human collective in contrast to those of personal use and demarcation, as well as the inverse disposition of the structures that contained them, allows to think that notions of symmetry and opposition would have been implied in the treatment of the deceased by those who inhabited the valley three thousand years ago.Downloads
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