Marisa Lazzari

Built landscapes of everyday life: a house in an early agricultural village of north-western Argentina

Abstract This article focuses on the architectural characteristics of a household compound in Cardonal, an early agricultural village located in the southern Cajón Valley (Catamarca, north-western Argentina) dated to the first centuries ad. When architecture, as landscape, is understood as the result of the daily tasks of living, the research carried out in Cardonal gives substance to the ways in which the materiality of everyday life forged the building of this prehistoric village. Cardonal is an example of how houses and architecture are not static but fluidly changing with the contingencies of life.

The past as a lived space: Heritage places, re-emergent aesthetics, and hopeful practices in NW Argentina

This article explores the past as a lived, inhabited reality through a series of examples of indigenous heritage practices in NW Argentina (NWA), a region that in recent decades has seen increasing indigenous demands for autonomy as well as for land and cultural rights. This article seeks to understand the locations where heritage struggles emerge, as well as the artefacts around which they emerge, as social, semantic, and physical spaces of ontological multiplicity. Understanding how such places and artefacts are constituted as lived-in-the-flesh realities today requires examination of the multiple present connections that make them possible, as well as inquiry into how the sedimentation of previous lived experiences contributes to present understandings. This article examines ancient places that become gravity points, fuelling both indigenous politics and an academic practice with its own aesthetic code. To varying degrees, the cases explored reflect our involvement – as archaeological researchers, professional advisors, and museum visitors – with re-emergent indigenous heritage practices in the region.

Stones to Build a World: Circulation and Value of Materials in Pre-Columbian Northwestern Argentina

This article presents a contextual analysis of stone materials from northwestern Argentina, produced at a time when sedentary life was unfolding throughout the region. It examines the circulation and use practices of everyday obsidian tools, as well as the technical and semantic relationships they established within the wider field of materials and artefacts that characterized the period. Arguing for a sensitive approach to the classificatory logic of past societies, it is proposed here that a particular hierarchy of stone artefacts of regional significance emerged during this period. After discussing anthropological value perspectives and their relevance to Andean archaeology, the article explores Andean conceptualizations of stone that can provide a culturally specific framework for understanding ancient stone materials. The final sections examine the technical and contextual practices involving with domestic stone tools, as well as how these were embedded in a wider landscape of physical and semantic relationships. It is hoped that this article will contribute to ongoing discussions on non-Western models of value and their relevance for understanding social interaction and complexity, both in the south-central Andes and beyond.

Compositional data supports decentralized model of production and circulation of artifacts in the pre-Columbian south-central Andes

Significance The exchange of goods is a key factor in the development of complex societies. The Andes have provided a fertile ground for investigating this process, yet the long-standing emphasis on qualitative assessments of artifact similarities has left important aspects of ancient exchange open to speculation. Through a multianalytical and multimaterial approach we examine regional connections in Formative Period northwest Argentina. The results unveil a far more multifaceted, decentralized network than previously thought, challenging standard approaches that have favored centralized patterns of regional interaction. The study opens avenues for investigating the dynamic interaction between local and regional networks in small-scale societies through actual material transfers, both in the Andes and beyond. The circulation and exchange of goods and resources at various scales have long been considered central to the understanding of complex societies, and the Andes have provided a fertile ground for investigating this process. However, long-standing archaeological emphasis on typological analysis, although helpful to hypothesize the direction of contacts, has left important aspects of ancient exchange open to speculation. To improve understanding of ancient exchange practices and their potential role in structuring alliances, we examine material exchanges in northwest Argentina (part of the south-central Andes) during 400 BC to AD 1000 (part of the regional Formative Period), with a multianalytical approach (petrography, instrumental neutron activation analysis, laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) to artifacts previously studied separately. We assess the standard centralized model of interaction vs. a decentralized model through the largest provenance database available to date in the region. The results show: (i) intervalley heterogeneity of clays and fabrics for ordinary wares; (ii) intervalley homogeneity of clays and fabrics for a wide range of decorated wares (e.g., painted Ciénaga); (iii) selective circulation of two distinct polychrome wares (Vaquerías and Condorhuasi); (iv) generalized access to obsidian from one major source and various minor sources; and (v) selective circulation of volcanic rock tools from a single source. These trends reflect the multiple and conflicting demands experienced by people in small-scale societies, which may be difficult to capitalize by aspiring elites. The study undermines centralized narratives of exchange for this period, offering a new platform for understanding ancient exchange based on actual material transfers, both in the Andes and beyond.