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Anthropomorphic Figurines at Perdigões Enclosure: Naturalism, Body Proportion and Canonical Posture as Forms of Ideological Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

António Carlos Valera  and
Lucy Shaw Evangelista
António Carlos Valera
Affiliation:
NIA-Archaeological Research Unit – Era Arqueologia, Portugal
Lucy Shaw Evangelista
Affiliation:
NIA-Archaeological Research Unit – Era Arqueologia, Portugal
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Abstract

This paper focusses on a set of anthropomorphic figurines. It suggests that realistic human proportion and canonical body posture were pursued in the carving of these objects as a means of expressing ideology, in a context of diversified forms of manipulation of bodies in funerary practices. It is argued that, against a background of predominantly schematic art, the more realistic and canonical anthropomorphic representation of the human body was used to communicate a set of ideological statements in a more controlled and immediate way, in a period of ontological and cosmological transition.

Cet article porte principalement sur une collection de figurines anthropomorphes et suggère qu'en sculptant ces objets, on cherchait à atteindre des proportions humaines réalistes et une posture canonique du corps afin d'exprimer une idéologie, dans un contexte de manipulations diverses des corps pendant les rites funéraires. Les auteurs soutiennent que dans un contexte d'art à prédominance schématique, la représentation anthropomorphe plus réaliste et canonique du corps humain servait à transmettre un ensemble d'expressions idéologiques d'une manière plus contrôlée et immédiate, pendant une période de transition ontologique et cosmologique. Translation by Isabelle Gerges

Zusammenfassung

Zusammenfassung

Dieser Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit einer Gruppe anthropomorpher Figurinen. Er schlägt vor, dass die realistische menschliche Proportion und kanonische Körperhaltung in der Schnitzerei dieser Objekte als Hilfsmittel des Ausdrucks von Ideologie, in einem Kontext diversifizierter Formen der Manipulation von Körpern bei den Bestattungspraktiken, ausgeführt wurden. Es wird dargelegt, dass — vor einem Hintergrund vorwiegend schematischer Kunst — die realistischere und kanonischere Darstellung des menschlichen Körpers genutzt wurde, um in einer Periode ontologischen und kosmologischen Überganges ein Set von ideologischen Aussagen auf kontrollierterem und unmittelbarerem Weg zu kommunizieren. Translation by Heiner Schwarzberg

Keywords

anthropomorphic figurineshuman bodyrepresentationnaturalismpostureChalcolithicNeolithicPortugalfigurines anthropomorphescorps humainreprésentationnaturalismepositionChalcolithiqueNéolithiquePortugalanthropomorphe Figurinenmenschlicher KörperDarstellungNaturalismusHaltungChalkolithikumNeolithikumPortugal
Type
Articles
Information
European Journal of Archaeology , Volume 17 , Issue 2: Special Issue—Body Practices and Concepts in Later Prehistoric Europe , 2014 , pp. 286 - 300
Copyright
Copyright © European Association of Archaeologists 2014 

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