Toward a Situated Ontology of Bodies and Landscapes in the Archaeology of the Southern Andes (First Millennium AD, Northwest Argentina)

Abstract

In this chapter, a new approach to landscapes by working through alternative ontologies of bodies. Conventional theories of landscape imply a specific kind of conceptualization of the body that cuts off a host of ontological alternatives. Indeed, the very idea of landscape is an artefact or effect of a western concept of bodies as either neutral platforms of observation or sensing things. Amazonian theories of bodies are an entry point to explore the geographic extension of the La Candelaria culture of first millennium northwest Argentina. The focus is shifted from the relation between humans and world to that among multiple beings, including beings that are traditionally called elements of the landscape. The argument is that the way of relating and constituting oneself as human among the multitude of selves is what made life possible for the La Candelaria in the very different environments they inhabited.