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SEXUAL POLITICS AND SOCIAL REPRODUCTION IN THE PAMPA DEL TAMARUGAL: SEX-AGE STRUCTURE IN THE TARAPACÁ 40 CEMETERY (BC 1000-600 AD)

POLÍTICA SEXUAL Y REPRODUCCIÓN SOCIAL EN LA PAMPA DEL TAMARUGAL: ESTRUCTURA SEXO-EDAD EN EL CEMENTERIO TARAPACÁ 40 (1000 AC-600 DC)

Andrea González-Ramírez, Arturo Sáez, María José Herrera Soto, Lía Leyton, Felipe Miranda, Francisca Santana-Sagredo and Mauricio Uribe Rodríguez

In this paper we propose explanatory hypotheses about the sexual politics that were from time to time implemented in the configuration of the Pampa del Tamarugal formative community, with the aim to contribute to the archaeological study of social reproduction. The bioanthropological collections of the Tarapacá 40 Cemetery underwent an osteological survey, designed to identify their sexual and age structure. A significant number of contextual references were recovered, and an exploratory analysis of the variation in the sex-age structure of some cemeteries in the region was carried out. The results show a cemetery with all age ranges and a 1:1 sex ratio. On a regional scale, a dichotomous distribution was observed between archaic and formative cemeteries, based on the ratio between adult women and non-adults. We propose that social relations of reproduction and sexual division of labor between the late archaic and the formative society underwent radical transformations, the most direct impact of which could be the social control of female sexuality through the establishment of a kinship-based socio-political regime.

Tags: Social reproduction, sexual politics, sex-age structure, Formative period, materialist feminism

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