Resumo
Located in Northwest Argentina, Tafí cultural tradition (250 BC-AD 850) is among the most outstanding expressions of the so-called Formative or Neolithic period of this region. It gets its name from one of the main valleys connecting the plains and “yunga” forest of Tucumán Province with the Andean Highlands, a position which provides a relatively temperate climate and an almost continuous praire vegetation. Such traits, but above all the ubiquity of the remains of circular stone structures along the road that crosses the valley, favored an early knowledge of this tradition by Archaeology. Not for nothing, scholars noticed the carved monoliths which have popularly characterized it in the late 19th century; and despite their archaeological context was partially lost, it is known that a few were gathered around an earth mound excavated in turn in the 60s. The uniqueness of the latter structure together with the monumentalization implied by monoliths, the newly developed agropastoral-based livelihood, and its co-occurrence with an unprecedented population density led to a social interpretation in terms of emergent hierarchies and chieftainship. However, the most prominent –and monumental– characteristic of Tafí tradition are in fact those aforementioned stone structures, most of which correspond to households sharply segregated from the outside and scattered all over the landscape in more or less blurred clusters; so in the following decades, self-sufficiency and egalitarianism have been primarily stressed. Our aim is to problematize this apparent paradox as the result of a weak understanding of primitive politics, ultimately rooted in the teleological mythology of Modernity. An alternative approach will be discussed instead from the point of view of the agents, their political goals and ontologies, as they were actualized by inhabiting the landscape. To this end, GIS analyses were conducted in Tafí and neighboring areas, where previously unknown mounds have been documented.
Palabras chave
Neolithic-Formative. South America. Political Anthropology. Agency. Social Identity. Spatial Analysis.