Social dimension of ceramic technology in hunter-gatherers societies

Abstract

The objective of this work is to study in deph the morphological and functional variability of the ceramic assemblage from Las Marías site. The ceramic sample comes from a hunter-gatherer site from the late Holocene, placed in Magdalena department, Buenos Aires, Argentina. In a previous work, three categories of containers have been isolated: processing, storage and transference (Paleo and Pérez Meroni, in press). Processing containers will be particularly analysed through a methodology which has been developed to approach the relationship between shape and function, and which has allowed to understand the existing diversity. The studies of raw materials and traces of use, as well as the analysis of organic residues, have allowed us to infer about the range of activities in which the containers have been used. The research about the social dimension of ceramic technology has contributed to a better understanding of the different social strategies used by these groups.