Abstract

GONZALEZ DUBOX, Raúl Eduardo. Rock art, agency and ontology: Current reflections on the old animism south of the Central Plateau of Santa Cruz (Patagonia, Argentina). Rev. Mus. Antropol. [online]. 2021, vol.14, n.2, pp.00-00. ISSN 1852-060X.  http://dx.doi.org/http://doi.org/10.31048/1852.4826.v14.n2.29811.

Abstract Analyzing the agency and ontology of matter in archaeological remains supose undeniable challenges, and nowhere are these challenges more acute than in the interpretation of the rock art of Patagonia. Although the discussion around the ontology of our assumptions and categories enjoys a considerable place in anthropological and archaeological literature, the studies of Patagonian hunter-gatherers remain mainly on the sidelines. In this essay I explore, without conclusive claims, a way of approaching to the La María rock art, in the south of the Central Plateau of Santa Cruz, from an ontological perspective. Reviewing travelers’ chronicles, ethnographic descriptions and compilations of myths, I inquire into the relevance of the concept of assembly by Fowler (2017) and animism by Descola (2005), evaluating the possibility that motifs from the rock repertoire such as guanacos, felines and negatives of hands can be approached in terms of exteriority / interiority-similarity / difference, taking up the notion of animism as an interpretive resource.

Keywords : Animism; Ontology; Agency; Rock Art; Patagonia.

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