Aldeas en los bosques de Prosopis. Arquitectura residencial y congregacional en el período Formativo tarapaqueño (900 AC-900 DC)

Abstract

This paper concerns the relationship between residential architecture and gathering spaces in a group of Formative villages and settlements located in the Tarapacá and Guatacondo valleys of Northern Chile. The attributes analyzed include the sites' formal characteristics and their role as territorial inscriptions and social containers, their materials and internal organization, and the associated social practices and the role of these public spaces in everyday experience and social order. We emphasize the variability, both in formal terms and with respect to the associated actions and usage of these open, constructed spaces and their shared use, and consequently, the differences in the congregational and public actions. We propose a frame of analysis that broadens the use of architecture as a historic-cultural indicator, integrating models from related fields.