Interaction and Social Fields in San Pedro de Atacama, Northern Chile

Abstract

Mortuary remains have long served to define archaeological culture groups, providing both the materials for delineating discrete assemblages and the evidence of unique, culturally bounded manners of treating the dead. Graves also provide evidence of trade and exchange, such that materials are seen to reflect the exchange of ideas and the seeds of social change. Stanish (1992: 29–30, 2005; Aldenderfer and Stanish 1993), however, has taken issue with the use of grave goods for the study of ethnic affiliation. To trace colonies of core communities in far-flung regions, it is best, he feels, to work with domestic contexts that are not characterized by such high variability in stylistic expression, and objects of high ritual and symbolic value. A true ethnic colony will be expressed in the more mundane world of the household. It follows, of course, that graves are thus not ideal places to look at evidence of interaction as they typically contain higher proportions of high-status goods, including mobile pieces such as exotic non-local ceramics (see Sutter 2005 and Stovel 1997 for complementary discussions). Thus using exclusively mortuary remains would lead one to exaggerate non-local interaction and the impact of foreign communities. This paper addresses these issues through use of the concept of the social field (discussed below) in an attempt to put forth a more complex social model for the unique cultural landscape of prehistoric interaction in San Pedro de Atacama.