We discuss Chinchorro mortuary practices during the Middle Archaic (7000-5000 B.P.) as demonstrated by 12 funerary contexts excavated at the site of Maestranza Chinchorro, northern Chile. First we describe each of the funerary contexts. Then we discuss the variability of mortuary practices, the configuration of multiple burials, the mortuary treatment of human fetuses, lifestyle, and paleopathology. We conclude that mortuary practices are heterogeneous and that not all subjects received elaborate treatment. Mortuary ritual focused on the seven infants in the group, which included two fetuses of a few months' gestation, something fairly unusual in human prehistory. Treatment consisted in the removal of all soft tissue and the use of sticks to reinforce the skeletons, upon which abundant gray clay was mounted in order to model the human figure. In contrast to the infants, just one young adult woman received complex mortuary treatment. Finally, based on the spatial distribution of contemporary burial sites, we propose that Middle Archaic communities in coastal Arica comprised small groups, including adults and children of different sexes, that settled around key resources like watering holes, rivers, wetlands, and hunting and fishing areas. This resulted in fierce intergroup competition and highly territorial behavior.
Se presentan los resultados de los análisis técnicos de manufactura en fibra vegetal de esteras o mantas funerarias, ampliamente usadas entre los cazadores, pescadores y recolectores de la tradición cultural Chinchorro, que habitaron la costa del norte de Chile y sur de Perú entre los 10.000 y 3500 aP. Se analizaron 153 fragmentos de esteras de 12 sitios funerarios de Arica y Camarones. Se describen y grafican los atributos de las dos técnicas identificadas: twining o torzal (94%) y técnica de estera cosida (6%) y sus rasgos estéticos de pintados y bordados. Estas técnicas fueron muy conservadoras y no variaron a través del tiempo y el espacio. La excepción es la técnica de estera cosida, que aparece hacia fines del Arcaico Tardío (4000-3500 aP). La aplicación de diseños pintados se registra desde el Arcaico Temprano (10.000-7000 aP) con ajedrezados y franjas bicolor (rojo y negro), a lo que se agregan en el Arcaico Tardío diseños más complejos (escalonados y círculos) además de esteras con aplicación de bordados. No detectamos diferencias en la manufactura de las esteras en relación con la edad, sexo y tipo de tratamiento funerario de los individuos que portaban estas esteras.
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