ISBN:
978-0-87365-215-5
Language:
English
Pages:
xv, 346 Seiten + 1 CD
,
Illustrationen
Series Statement:
Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 86
Keywords:
Pakistan Indus-Kultur
;
Archäologie
;
Terrakotta
Abstract:
After more than eighty years of research, the Indus Civilization (ca. 2600-1900 BC) remains largely enigmatic. The terracotta figurines are one of the largest and richest sources of information regarding Indus ideology and society. Unfortunately, the figurines have often been considered selectively without evaluating their archaeological or socio-cultural contexts, resulting in biased interpretations that ignore the richness and diversity of the figurine corpus. I contend that figurines must be viewed as media of communication in their original social contexts rather than as naturalistic reflections. My research examines the figurines from the urban site of Harappa (ca. 3300-1700 BC) as reflections of the underlying structures of Indus society and cultural change, focusing on figurines from secure dated archaeological contexts. The figurines are viewed as artifacts whose "social lives" can be at least partially reconstructed through systematic analyses of stylistic and technological attributes and spatial and temporal contexts (usually fill or trash deposits). Comparisons with ethnographic data, historic texts, and contemporary ancient societies also inform these interpretations. My research suggests that: (1) the figurine corpus is quite diverse, including anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and special form figurines; (2) the figurines were intentionally hand-modeled (rather than molded) by craftspeople (rather than children); (3) the figurines reflect fluid concepts of sex and gender and possibly dualism and balance; (4) the corpus was NOT dominated by highly decorated female figurines that represented a supreme Indus "Mother Goddess" and functioned as votive "anthropomorphic lamps"; and (5) the unique choices made in the construction of the figurines and the diversity of the figurine corpus itself represent a rich religious ideology that included transformation and reverence, probably cultic ritual and sympathetic magic, and possibly even shamanism, but not Hinduism. This study presents the first empirical tests of some long-held interpretations about the Indus figurines and the first provisional chronological typology for figurines from an Indus site. This chronological ordering demonstrates some continuity in traits over time that may reflect the maintenance of underlying indigenous core traditions of the region despite adaptations to a dominant culture, therefore exploring questions of indigenous development and acculturation, as well as expressions of Indus identity.
Note:
Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 323-346
,
Dissertation, Ph.D., Harvard University, 2007
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