Social differentiation’s evidence in the Aguada Orilla Norte cemetery’s mortuary contexts (Hualfín valley, Catamarca)

Abstract

This paper applies Bourdieu concepts of social field, habitus and symbolic capital, an archaeological empirical basis, as a tool that could allow establishing the existence of inequality and heterogeneity. We believe that making distinctions in a bourdiano sense makes visible the actions’ intentionality and that this is an important indicator of the existence of complexity in the game of social distinction. We assume that the Aguada Orilla Norte cemetery in Hualfin Valley (Catamarca) is representative of a community living in the area during the Middle Period. Evidence of this Aguada burial site was treated in previous papers, defining the existence of three groups of graves interpreted as representative of sectors that were socially reproduced during the development of the Middle Period in Hualfin Valley. Therefore considering the existence of complexity involves establishing the existence of social inequality and heterogeneity. Here we look for indicators, which at the level of funerary offerings could be demonstrative of diversified activities and inequality.