Abstract

BASTOURRE, María Laura. Human/animals relations in the pre-Hispanic societies from the Middle and Lower Paraná River: an ontological turn. 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.n2.30066.

Abstract The contribution of Amazonian anthropology to archaeologies of ontology is assessed in order to explore human/animals relations in the pre-Hispanic societies from the Middle and Lower Paraná River. Available archaeological information regarding Goya-Malabrigo pottery with zoomorphic appendages suggests that past ontological filters can be linked to animic or perspectivistic regimes. A more critical ontological turn, however, should go beyond representationalism and, instead of wondering what “worldviews” these zoomorphic figures express, it could benefit from focusing on its affective and agentive capacities. To this regard, the concepts of body transformation and “specification” are addressed, which led to considering other aspects and materials involved in human engagements with animals in the past. It is argued that practices commonly labeled as “material” (eg. subsistence) as well as those traditionally linked to “symbolic worlds” (e.g. animal representations) are both better understood as materially interwoven actions and relations involving multiple agencies, not just human ones. It is from this relational process that subjects, objects, materials, meanings, humans and animals emerge, without a priori ontological distinctions between them.

Keywords : Perspectivism; Nature-culture; Goya-Malabrigo; Zooarchaeology; Zoomorphic appendages.

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