Rock art research and knowledge-production in the context of globalisations: A comparative approach to the cases of Patagonia-Argentina and Eastern Canada

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss how the different globalisations (in plural) in Argentina and Canada have had (and still have) various impacts on the ways in which rock art knowledge was built in different moments and contexts of globalisation over time. In particular, we focus on: 1) the initial or pioneer views on deep-time rock art in Eastern Canada and Patagonia (those of voyagers, explorers, militaries, and missionaries); 2) the development of archaeologies of art in the strict academic sense of theterm (e.g. culture-history and stylistic approaches as well as processual approaches, following and creatively adapting international academic trends);and 3) a number of new theoretical approaches associated withpost-processualism, including landscape archaeology, ecological approaches,materiality, and, more recently, the ‘ontological turn’. These three periods in the history of Westernthought on deep-time rock art emerged in different contexts and under specific historical conditions, yet are characterised by theglobalisation of theoretical concepts from central areas of traditionala cademic theoretical production (i.e. Europe and USA), towards South Americaand Canada. In sum, we show how interpretations of deep-time Indigenous rockart in Eastern Canada and in Argentinean Patagonia were conceived underdifferent conceptual frameworks according to different contexts of globalisations over time.