Anthropology

Hornborg, Alf

doi:10.2307/j.ctv13xps7k.12

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 348 publications

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“…This provided the impulse for us to undertake new research, which since 2015 we have been conducting through Polish-Peruvian collaboration. The works included a detailed geodetic and iconographic documentation of the entire site, as well as the first excavations at some of the boulders (Wołoszyn et al 2019;2020).…”

Section: Toro Muertomentioning

confidence: 99%

Dances with Zigzags in Toro Muerto, Peru: Geometric Petroglyphs as (Possible) Embodiments of Songs

Rozwadowski,

Wołoszyn

2024

CAJ

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Southern Peru is home to one of the richest sites with rock art in South America—Toro Muerto. A unique aspect of the iconography of the petroglyphs of the site is the figures of dancing humans, the so-called danzantes, which are additionally frequently associated with geometric motifs, mostly variants of zigzag lines. Drawing upon intriguing data recorded during Reichel-Dolmatoff's research in Colombia related to the meaning of analogous motifs in Tukano art, as well as broader exploration of the sonic sphere in South American cultures and the thesis that Amazonian animism was a more archaic ontology over a broader area of South America, this paper suggests that the geometric patterns at Toro Muerto, with which the figures of danzantes are juxtaposed, may have been representations of songs. An extension of this hypothesis is the suggestion that some of the more complex compositions consisting of danzantes and linear geometric motifs were graphic metaphors of transfer to the other world.

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Section: Toro Muertomentioning

confidence: 99%