Archaeological Contexts and Social Uses of Pututus in the Prehispanic Central Andes

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Music Archaeology's Paradox: Contextual Dependency and Contextual Expressivity" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Pututus are marine shell trumpets (organologically, horns), known in the prehispanic Central Andes from the Archaic period to the Late Horizon. Different classes of those sound-producing artifacts have been discovered: some of them cut from various species of marine gastropods, and others produced in ceramics that imitate the gastropod shape (skeuomorphs). Pututus can be analyzed as sound-producing instruments via acoustical and organological studies, but they also must be understood as archaeological artifacts, with a strong social focus. By analyzing them within their specific archaeological contexts, we can better comprehend their status, and also trace the evolution of related sound practices through time. Thus, it is possible to determinate different social uses of pututus, which are, most of the time, related to their acoustical possibilities. In this study, I take a complementary approach to analyzing archaeological contexts, sound-related evidence, and iconographic data to produce a comprehensive evaluation of social sound practices involving pututus in the prehispanic Central Andes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Music Archaeology's Paradox: Contextual Dependency and Contextual Expressivity

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32726