Imitating from Memory: Hybrid Vessels and Attempted Replications of Stylistic Elements from Central Panama in the Pre-Hispanic Ceramics of Costa Rica

Summary

The ceramics of Central America are replete with examples of stylistic influence that represent attempts by local potters to reproduce foreign styles from distant lands. Examples include attempts to reproduce elements of Late Classic Maya styles in ceramics of the "southern periphery" of Mesoamerica. This paper presents evidence for attempted but imperfect and even inept reproduction of elements from the opposite direction—territories far to the south and east—by identifying elements of Coclé-style designs typical of central Panama in both bichrome and polychrome vessels of northwestern and eastern Costa Rica between ca. AD 300 and 1300. The specific divergences between these part-imitation, part-local objects and the vessels from whose styles they borrow suggest that these hybrids were not the products of permanent migrants, itinerant potters with practiced knowledge of their own ceramic styles, nor direct copies from imported models, but rather reproductions from memory of elements that had been observed during long-distance interactions between ceramic artists of Costa Rica and Panama. They are interpreted as evidence for inter-ethnic appropriation of ideas and symbolism between distinct communities in the Isthmo-Colombian area.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Itinerant Matters and Hybrid Objects: Research on material transfers and contact products

Keywords

Spatial Coverage