Rock art of the upper Lluta valley, northernmost of Chile (South Central Andes): A visual approach to socio-economic changes between Archaic and Formative periods (6,000–1,500 years BP)
Résumé
Though they are generally characterized on the basis of faunal remains or lithic industries, in the highlands of northernmost
Chile, the cultural aspects of the socio-economic changes, between Archaic and Formative periods (6000–1500
years BP), from hunter-gatherer to pastoral modes of life, a consequence of the domestication of camelids, can be discussed
through the numerous scenes painted on the stone surfaces of rock shelters. The originality of these representations
lies in the precision with which certain practices are represented, and in the socio-economic and symbolic relationships
that between humans and animals, specifically with the camelids of the Andes. The present study is based on the analysis
of these scenes, with the human-animal relationship, and the graphic superpositions, at six rock-art sites in the upper Lluta
valley in precordillera or andean foothill, of the northernmost of Chile. We observe that the technical investment and the
objective of the scenes become increasingly complex and focused on the control and possible protection of the animal. In
the absence of archaeological contexts related to domestication in this region of the South Central Andes, this new study
provides an innovative approach to the progressive changes of practices related to animal management, several hundreds
of miles from the area where in situ domestication is evidenced.