IDENTITY, PRESENCE AND POLITICAL RELATIONSHIPS IN THE MORTUARY RITUALS OF PARACAS NECRÓPOLIS

Summary

Does a Paracas Necropolis mortuary bundle represent the identity of the individual at its core, those who honored that person, or a broader social network? Extraordinary aspects of these mortuary bundles include the quantity and quality of the layered garments and their diverse styles and imagery. Data related to their production indicates their origin in many different communities directly engaged in textile production, agriculture and herding, as well as the management of natural resources from diverse environments. Fiber qualities, dye lots, spin and ply, and weaving practice indicate groups echoed by more visible features such as color use, garment design, image style and iconography. A knowledgeable viewer could have named the producers of each artifact. What sociopolitical model may explain the gathering of diverse styles in groups of equivalent garments as part of postmortem rituals that constructed an ancestral effigy around the mortal remains of an individual? Both indexical and symbolic reference made the addition of a textile to a mortuary bundle a political act, which must have strengthened and renewed relationships of power and leadership among descendent groups.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• See How We Are: Representing Identity in the Ancient Americas

Keywords

Spatial Coverage