Clay bodies, people’s bodies: metaphors in iconography of Polychrome funerary urns

Resumo In recent years Amazonian ethnology has proposed a theory of the Amerindian body which sees it as a matrix of relationships and transformations. The resulting possibilities of fluidity between different bodies and perspectives inscribed in these models would be some of the pillars of a Lowlands’ cosmopolitics and would be represented through different expressions such as images, rites, songs, dances and artifacts. In this sense, aesthetic expressions are understood as agent elements within the circles of human and non-human relations and can materialize certain aspects of particular universes and of social and symbolic performances. Based on these propositions, we explore a dialogue between Archaeology and Ethnology, analyzing the iconographic language of the funerary urns of the Polychrome Tradition of the Amazon, in the lower and medium Solimões River. Such artifacts can be interpreted as bodies, composed of two- and three-dimensional human and animal references and are covered with elaborate motifs. This essay aims to interpret the iconography of these objects based on their body elements and how they may reveal notions related to the production and constitution of bodies and social agents.

摘要：近年来，亚马逊民族学提出了一套关于美洲印第安人身体的理论，将身体视为关系与转化的矩阵。这些模型中蕴含的不同身体与视角间的流动性可能，乃是亚马孙低地宇宙政治学（cosmopolitics）的核心支柱之一，并可通过图像、仪式、歌谣、舞蹈与器物等多种形式得以呈现。就此而言，审美表达被视作人-非人关系圈层中的能动要素，可具象化特定宇宙观以及社会与符号展演的若干面向。基于上述命题，本文探索考古学与民族学的对话路径，对索利莫伊斯河中下游地区亚马孙多彩传统（Polychrome Tradition）丧葬罐（funerary urns）的图像学语汇展开分析。这类器物可被解读为身体载体，由二维与三维的人、动物形象构成，表面饰有精细纹饰。本文旨在基于这些器物的身体元素，解读其图像学内涵，并揭示这些元素如何展现与身体建构、社会能动者生成相关的观念。