TRAVERSING FRONTIERS SHARED PRACTICES AND NEGOTIATED SOCIAL IDENTITIES IN THE LATE PREHISPANIC: A DISCUSSION ON COMMON POTTERY FROM THE VALLE DEL BOLSON (BELEN, CATAMARCA)

Common pottery, like any other item of material culture, plays an active role in the production and reproduction of social relations and meanings. This paper contributes to the study of the social practices of production and consumption of these objects as instances that allow us to discuss the construction of social identities in macro-regional interaction processes during the late Prehispanic in the Valliserrana region of Northwestern Argentina. Thus, we present and synthesize the visual aesthetic characteristics - morphology, surface treatment, iconography- and petrography of the ceramic assemblages from two settlements in the Bolson valley (Belen, Catamarca). We compare these results with those of neighboring regions and posit the existence of shared aesthetic and technological models that cross the regional and stylistic boundaries traditionally applied to this area and for this chronological period.