Human Culture and History

**111**

concept

**1. Introduction**

and only these are approved for use.

**Chapter 6**

**Abstract**

*Paola González Carvajal*

Shipibo Conibo and Chilean

Diaguita Visual Art: Cognitive

Technologies, Shamanism and

Long-Distance Cultural Linkages

Pre-Columbian art in all its varied forms offers rich terrain for furthering our insights into the cultural and symbolic lives of Amerindian peoples. This paper studies decorative patterns of Diaguita origin which present a visual logic characterized by the use of complex symmetries, illusory optical vibration, endless variability stemming from simple geometric forms, *horror vacui*, and gradual structural complication, among other techniques. The features described, the association of this visual art to an animal alter ego (jaguar), and the evidence of hallucinogen use together suggest a cultural link with specific ethnographic (Shipibo-Conibo) and archeological (Mojocoya) visual art. In this case, we are dealing not with a notation system but with visual "technologies of enchantment" (sensu Gell 1998) that are used to produce decorative patterns with social agency that captivate viewers with their visual artifice—the non-mimetic appearance of animation. In 2015, a large cemetery was excavated at the Diaguita site of El Olivar. The graves therein belong to an early Diaguita cultural period, during which the Diaguitas created a techno-stylistic material identity, expressed in visual languages rooted not only in the Andean world, but in ancient cultural traditions of the eastern lowlands of Bolivia and the Peruvian Amazon.

**Keywords:** Chilean Diaguita culture, Shipibo-Conibo culture, South American shamanic art, cultural symmetry, long-distance cultural linkages, indigenous art

Structural analysis of Diaguita visual art [1] revealed certain decorative patterns (the predominance of abstract designs, the heavy use of symmetry, and the presence of spotted feline representations). The designs' minimal units and symmetrical structure have been shown to be sensitive to issues of group identity and cultural interaction processes [2], in which each culture selects and appropriates a limited number of symmetries that form a specific universe of socially recognized forms,

Pre-Inca Diaguita art displays a series of traits that allow it to be considered representative of a specific South American shamanic art tradition. Notable among these traits are the association of the designs with an alter ego (jaguar or spotted feline), the
