On heat and dryness: landscapes, death and materiality in early agricultural societies of the southern Calchaquí valleys (Northwest Argentina, First Millennium AD)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The archaeological record of funerary practices of the southern Calchaquí valleys, Northwest Argentina, offers fruitful ground to explore past significances embedded in the material forms of burial traditions. The recurrence of cemeteries and tombs located in sandy soils forwards plausible interpretations with regards to the notion of ‘death’ and the metaphors of ‘heat’ and ‘dryness’, a conceptual link that has been highlighted by ethnohistorical and ethnographic records of the Andes. Such accounts are used here with the purpose of generating interpretative hypotheses. This article argues that the sensorial qualities of particular landscapes and materials were one of the resources used to define the space of the dead during the Formative Period (ca. 1500 BC–1000 AD) in the southern Calchaquí valleys.