The Human/Animal Continuum in Nasca Sculptural Ceramics (c. 1-450)

Summary

Studies of Nasca polychrome ceramic iconography from many phases identify shamans in various roles. In ceremonial scenes shamans drink from cups filled with the entheogenic pulp of the San Pedro cactus, dance, play instruments, don costumes as supernatural imitators, and preside over rituals related to agriculture. Rarely however, is less immediately understandable ceramic imagery interpreted through the lens of shamanism as a Nasca worldview. Shamanic thinking privileges ambiguousness, trance states (i.e. existence in the "in-between") and, most importantly here, overlap between the human and natural worlds. If shamans were a vital part of Nasca culture, as depicted in narrative ritual scenes, then we must begin to decipher how shamanic modes of thought infused other representations, as well.

This paper examines a group of early period (c. 1-450) sculptural polychrome vessels that represent the shaman in transformation. These vessels, in particular, offer unique examples of how Nasca artists solved the visual problem of depicting the visionary experience of a shaman, who is at once human and animal. A wide range of representations along the continuum of human/animal embodiment and perception exist within the early Nasca ceramic corpus; human/bird and human/marine animal combinations appear to be most common.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• From Foragers to Empires: Recent Research on the South Coast of Peru

Keywords

Spatial Coverage