Architecture and monuments as territorial markers among the hunter-gatherers of the Pacific coast, Atacama Desert (Northern Chile)

Summary

Architecture, as a material device that is perceived and experienced, involves the creation of spatial and visual signatures within a landscape, effectively connecting social groups and territories. In this paper, we explore the role of architecture and monuments in processes of territorialization, land tenure and the use of space among hunter-gatherers of the Pacific coast in the Atacama Desert, Northern Chile. Between 7,000 to 1,000 BP these groups developed diverse ways of making and using buildings through different modes of designing and constructing spaces, including shifts in the location of settlements, modes of organizing labor, changes in building materials, and different burial practices. Our framework considers changes in the architectural landscape and its monumentalization in order to address the ways in which this technology was used as a medium for establishing and reproducing social relations and transforming ecologies through values, norms, experiences, and affects.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage