Abstract

SEVILLA CASAS, ELÍAS. ART IN THE PRE-HISPANIC NECROPOLIS OF TIERRADENTRO. Rev. colomb. antropol. [online]. 2009, vol.45, n.2, pp.369-397. ISSN 0486-6525.

A brief description is made of the architectural, sculptural and pictorial work found in the tombs of the National Park of Tierradentro, Colombia, in order to discuss what "necropolis", "art" and "pre-Hispanic" mean. The study takes into account recent literature on anthropology of art and pre-Hispanic art, a following an emerging tendency that departs from the exclusive Euro and Anglo centered categories, concepts and terms. The idea is to mind the "stone thread" and the "abstract stoniness" that characterize the pre-Hispanic Andean art found in the necropolis in order to understand its reduplicative symbolic functionality. This is an elaboration within the general symbolic realm of human activity stemming from the emphasis on the special ability for signification that some human made things for the producers-receivers. We deal with what archaeology allows saying, without mythical-poetic speculations, on the pre-Hispanic populations who created and used the necropolis; and, on the aesthetic experience that the necropolis, as it is today, can generate in the visitors that move within the realm of "art and culture"

Keywords : Tierradentro; pre-Hispanic art; necropolis; anthropology of art; archaeology; world heritage; aesthetic experience.

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