Projectile points, dangers and Amerindian ontologies at eastern Catamarca (Argentina) during the first millennium CE

Abstract

Evaluating the links between South American Amerindian ontologies and the contextual study of knapped lithic technology is the main goal of this paper. To this end, we focus on a study case from eastern Catamarca province, Argentina, during the 1st millennium A.D. We identified projectile points in only one context, a rock art rock shelter (Oyola 7), while in other archaeological sites in the area, we have not recorded this type of stone tool. Drawing on ethnohistoric and ethnographic data regarding the connection between arrows and shamanic practices of illness and healing, we propose considering the agencies of these objects, as well as their intrinsic danger and their multiple possibilities of affecting beyond their traditional functional interpretation.