The Gift of the ' Face of the Living

Shell faces as social valuables in the Caribbean Late Ceramic Age

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2632938
AutoresAngus A A Mol, Angus Mol (0000-0001-5448-3712, Leiden University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2011
Volumen97
Número2
Páginas7-43
Fecha de publicación2011-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal de la Société des Américanistes (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0037-9174 • E-ISSN: 1957-7842
EditorialOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/jsa.11834
OpenAlexW2158900246
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas20

The Gift of the ' Face of the Living ': Shell faces as social valuables in the Caribbean Late Ceramic Age. The peoples of the Caribbean Late Ceramic Age (AD 600/800-1492) were in contact through intensive and extensive exchange networks. This article takes a close look at the social mechanism behind one of these networks, which consists of face-depicting shell discs or cones. This is done from a gift-theoretical framework that focuses on aspects of alienability/inalienability of these shell faces in a specifically Caribbean setting. These artefacts are characterized from the indigenous concept of guaízas - ' faces of the living ' - as understood from ethnohistoric sources. After treating their iconography and giving an overview of their archaeological and socio-cultural contexts the discussion will focus on alienable and inalienable qualities of these artefacts. Finally, ' shell faces as guaízas ' will be used in an argument in which they figure as social valuables that are used to control extra-communal Others

Archaeology · Economics · Ethnology · Face (sociological concept) · Iconography · Indigenous · Making-of · Management · Shell (structure) · Social science · Sociology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Ecology · Engineering · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History