Representation and meaning in rock art: the case of Algonquian rock images

Tapper, Bryn; Abadía, Óscar Moro; Zawadzka, Dagmara

doi:10.1080/00438243.2021.1897660

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…While a semiotic approach to the archaeological study of rock art is not new, Peircean perspectives are less widely used, and those implementing the concepts of qualisigns and qualia are rare (for examples, see Danielsson, 2015; Swenson, 2020). Yet, an approach centered on sensuous properties serves as a valuable complement to other materiality- and landscape-based approaches, particularly those highlighting the agency of rock art in creating social memory, reproducing institutional structures, and shaping modes of action and attention (e.g., Ambrosino, 2020; Rédei et al, 2019; Tapper et al, 2020). Recent research tends to emphasize the larger context of rock art in the construction of its meaning, particularly its relationship to landforms or features with cosmological significance, to aspects of the built environment, or to the dynamics of natural phenomena such as light and shadow.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, in his research on Andean rock art, Ambrosino (2020) uses a Peircean model to explore how the connections between ancestor veneration, identity, natural features, and movement relate to the negotiation of water rights. In another recent study, Tapper and colleagues (2020) highlight the fluid meanings of Algonquin rock art, which indexes reciprocal relationships between ‘humans, other-than-humans, animals, and places’ within changing semiotic ideologies. Although more archaeologists now recognize the usefulness of Peircean models in exploring the relational meanings of rock art, the concept of qualisigns is only rarely employed (see Danielsson, 2015; Rédei et al, 2019; Swenson, 2020).…”

Section: Semiotics and Qualia In Rock Art Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Qualia in late precolonial Pueblo rock art: An exploration of conventionalized sensorial experience in Rio Grande Style petroglyphs

Mattson

2023

Journal of Social Archaeology

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Although the application of semiotics to the archaeological study of rock art is not new, Peircean perspectives are still uncommon, and those implementing the concepts of qualisigns and qualia are only rarely employed. Yet, an approach centered on sensuous properties can serve as a valuable complement to other materiality- and landscape-based frameworks popular in contemporary rock art research. Using Ancestral Pueblo rock art from the Middle and Northern Rio Grande region of the U.S. Southwest as an example, I offer an archaeological narrative of how social values may be attached to conventionalized qualia rooted in sensorial experiences. Specifically, I examine how diverse media—rock art, shields, objects of adornment, and feathers—were connected through luminosity and security, culturally conceptualized qualitative properties that became formalized and enregistered in the context of new social institutions and modes of group conduct appearing during the 14th century CE.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Semiotics and Qualia In Rock Art Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Qualia in late precolonial Pueblo rock art: An exploration of conventionalized sensorial experience in Rio Grande Style petroglyphs

Mattson

2023

Journal of Social Archaeology

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Deep-Time Images and the Challenges of Globalization

Moro Abadía,

Conkey,

McDonald

2024

Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology

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In this collection of papers on globalization and rock art, we begin to examine how rock art research was historically shaped by a deep Eurocentric bias. We use the concept of deep time, following the recent focus of historians and other disciplines, where an appropriate scale of space and time is being explored to understand the human past (following McGrath and Jebb, Long history, deep time. Deepening histories of place. ANU Press, Canberra. https://doi.org/10.26530/OAPEN_578874, 2015; Griffiths, Deep time dreaming: uncovering ancient Australia. Black Inc., Carlton, 2018). A focus on the “deep time story”, as Billy (Griffiths, Deep time dreaming: uncovering ancient Australia. Black Inc., Carlton, p. 5, 2018) asserts, reminds us that history is but one way of thinking about the relationships between past and present. Rock art research has multiple lenses, rather than being a universal science or all-knowing truth. Deeply engrained Eurocentric biases that drove the earliest research efforts into deep time art and its makers, has shifted to a more global perspective on rock art and the people who made it, by those who are involved in its research, and by those for whom it has multiple significances. The proliferation of rock art research in colonized parts of the world, particularly the USA, Australia and Africa, continues to call into question this Eurocentrism. This shift in focus has been fueled, in part, by globalization, which has resulted in many benefits for rock art researchers, including the expansion of inquiry into new territories and the rapid sharing of developments in new methods for surveying, recording and dating rock images. Globalization has also generated new challenges and tensions. There are still many countries and territories that are excluded from these discussions, and Western hegemony and patrimony as promoted by institutions such as UNESCO, often collide with the interests of nationalism and local communities. The chapters in this volume explore these tensions and many suggest strategies to promote more critical attitudes toward globalization.

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Iconography as System. The Structural Principles of Representation in Visual Culture

Ibero

2023

Art History &Amp; Criticism

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Summary This paper constitutes a reflexive and theoretical approach to the study of iconographies from a cultural perspective. Its aim is to depict iconographies as the structural order which makes images representative of the social frameworks from which they stem. By analysing the stable principles which participate in the production of such representativity in any given iconography, and by considering the cultural agents which socially regulate them and make images culturally specific, it is possible to understand the cultural mechanisms by which the social construction of reality is projected onto images. Consequently, this approach favours a conceptualisation of iconographies as cultural systems through which the identity of social frameworks is conveyed thanks to the use of images.

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Representation and meaning in rock art: the case of Algonquian rock images

Cited by 3 publications

References 26 publications

Qualia in late precolonial Pueblo rock art: An exploration of conventionalized sensorial experience in Rio Grande Style petroglyphs

Qualia in late precolonial Pueblo rock art: An exploration of conventionalized sensorial experience in Rio Grande Style petroglyphs

Deep-Time Images and the Challenges of Globalization

Iconography as System. The Structural Principles of Representation in Visual Culture

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