Abstract

Though they are generally characterized on the basis of faunal remains or lithic industries, in the highlands of northernmost Chile, the cultural aspects of the socio-economic changes, between Archaic and Formative periods (6000e1500 years BP), from hunter-gatherer to pastoral modes of life, a consequence of the domestication of camelids, can be discussed through the numerous scenes painted on the stone surfaces of rock shelters. The originality of these representations lies in the precision with which certain practices are represented, and in the socio-economic and symbolic relationships that between humans and animals, specifically with the camelids of the Andes. The present study is based on the analysis of these scenes, with the human-animal relationship, and the graphic superpositions, at six rockart sites in the upper Lluta valley in precordillera or andean foothill, of the northernmost of Chile. We observe that the technical investment and the objective of the scenes become increasingly complex and focused on the control and possible protection of the animal. In the absence of archaeological contexts related to domestication in this region of the South Central Andes, this new study provides an innovative approach to the progressive changes of practices related to animal management, several hundreds of miles from the area where in situ domestication is evidenced.