CO-ACTING WITH FIGURINES: WOMEN, SHAMANS, AND AMERINDIAN PERSPECTIVISM IN THEARCHAEOLOGY
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2020-09-30

Nearly 400 pottery figurines were recovered during systematic excavations on tiny coral islands of the Los Roques Archipelago located off the Venezuelan coast. These islands were seasonally visited between 1200 A.D. and the time of European conquest by Cariban speaking peoples, archaeologically known as bearers of the Valencioid pottery who lived permanently on the north-central Venezuelan mainland. They were involved in the exploitation of the islands’ natural resources, mainly the Queen Conch mollusc (Lobatus gigas), marine turtles, and salt. The Valencioid seafarers crossed 135 km in dugout canoes, bringing with them hundreds of figurines, anthropo- and zoomorphic pottery vessels, ocarinas, bone flutes, stone artefacts, oleoresins, and feline skins, among other artefacts. Long-term research has demonstrated that the figurines were closely related to the animated agency of the Lobatus gigas mollusc. The human-mollusc interaction on economic grounds was inextricably intertwined with the ‘spiritual’ life of the Amerindians and the resulting ceremonialism was oriented to protect the island visitors from the anger of the queen conch’s protective spirits. Most of feminine island figurines may have metaphorically ‘assumed’ the ritualistic role of women, standing in as miniature surrogates for the women who were left behind in the mainland settlements. Shamans manipulated them together with other artefacts of ritualistic or shamanic function. The ritual enactment of the social category of women embodied in the figurines in the homosocial insular campsites would indeed prompt the Los Roques seafarers to re-conceptualize their quotidian face-to-face

relationships with the ‘real’ women in the heterosexual contexts of mainland villages. The rituals performed on islands located far from the ancestral homeland and associated with risky endeavours stimulated long-lasting and vivid memories and would have created strong bonds among the members of the task groups necessary to secure high levels of solidarity and cooperation in a hostile insular environment.


Author(s): Antczak, Maria Magdalen - Antczak, Andrzej T. (Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University; Unidad de Estudios Arqueológicos,
Universidad Simón Bolívar)