The Passage of Time and Mortuary Practices: Quebrada de Humahuaca (Jujuy, Argentina)

Abstract

Prehistoric people who inhabited the Argentine Northwest, as in the rest of the Andean region, maintained a close coexistence with burial spaces, which generally were not spatially segregated. The proximity between the worlds of the «living» and «dead» is a problem that is being worked by archaeologists in association with the so-called «ancestor worship». The study of mortuary practices, that is, death rituals, funerary structures, contexts of burial and other practices related to death, as a part of the social practices of different groups, is an interesting source of information that may account development processes and social change experienced by prehispanic populations. In this paper we develop a series of reflections focused on mortuary practices recorded in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, tracing its history during the Late Formative Period (AD 500-900), the Regional Development Period (AD 900-1430) and the Inca conquest (AD 1430).