The concept of ceramic style and its application in a case of study: The Formative groups of West Tinogasta (Catamarca)

Abstract

Technological style has been regarded as a useful tool for the study of cultural variation patterns and to iden-tify and explore social boundaries through the material record. Technological styles definition involves the iden-tification of existing technical variability within the analyzed sample that results from the different technological choices implemented by the craftsmen during the different steps of the manufacturing sequence. In archaeologi-cal terms the existence of certain attributes of the artifacts that co-varies in time and space imply some kind of relationship between persons who produced and used them. These relationships may include different levels of social interaction that does not necessarily involve co-residence. This work takes the concept of technological style and presents the results of analyses carried out on ceramic samples recovered in different archaeological sites corresponding to pre-estate agricultural societies that developed between 1500 - 1300 BP occupying different environments of western Tinogasta (Catamarca). The results contribute to the definition of the structure of the territory of such societies and are an indicator of the different degrees of interaction of human groups within a social system.