Materialidad y acción social: el caso de las estelas decoradas y estatuas-menhir durante la prehistoria peninsular

Abstract

We assume that the stelae and the prehistoric statue-menhirs had, mainly, an ideological meaning and, far from being mere passive reflexes of ideological structures, the stelae and the statue-menhirs were true social mechanisms, capable of reproducing or changing social rules. To organize this project which, at the moment, in confined because of the lack of documents related to social habits or to specific rituals connected with the stelae and the statue-menhirs, we based our work on 'the social interaction theories' developed in social sciences after the sixties. However, such an approach is possible if we can count on a set of material resources such as: the columns, the iconography and the location. These are material features that can be analysed at an archaeological level, provided that they are quantifiable material aspects. The normative reproduction of the quoted aspects is understood as a strcutural reproduction mechanism, while formal variability is understandable in terms of social interaction. The stelae and the statue-menhirs were connected with ritual contexts which were real social-interaction areas, where social relations were reproduced or innovated. In this context the stelae and the statue-menhirs, together with other elements from the material culture played an active role that must be valued.

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