Waka's, dead and pukara: reflections from the Tacuil Pukara (Calchaquí valley, Salta, northwestern Argentina)

Abstract  This paper focuses on the Tacuil pukara, a settlement of the Late or Regional Development Period (circa 900-1400 AD) located in the upper sector of the Calchaquí valley, in the present province of Salta, at 2700 meters above sea level, on a transversal ravine that connects the val...

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Autor principal: Castellanos, María Cecilia
Formato: Artículo revista
Lenguaje:Español
Publicado: Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires 2026
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Acceso en línea:https://revistascientificas.filo.uba.ar/index.php/esnoa/article/view/17304
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Sumario:Abstract  This paper focuses on the Tacuil pukara, a settlement of the Late or Regional Development Period (circa 900-1400 AD) located in the upper sector of the Calchaquí valley, in the present province of Salta, at 2700 meters above sea level, on a transversal ravine that connects the valley with the puna. This pukara is associated to another settlement in height, to low settlements and agricultural fields; and it presents in its walls scenes of rupestrian art and natural hollows that conform funerary spaces. The link between the pukara and the dead is analyzed; the relationship between internal space and external space (or inside and outside) is discussed and reflected upon, and the possibility is raised that the pukara was constituted as a wak'a, that is, as the materialization of an ancestrality sustained by a vitality that presents a generative, fertilizing power that regenerates and ensures social reproduction. Under this role, this pukara would have participated actively in daily life, maintaining a social and territorial role.