TRANSFORMACION Y RESIGNIFICACION DE LA PARAFERNALIA ALUCINOGENA PREHISPANICA EN ATACAMA A LA LUZ DE UN DOCUMENTO DEL SIGLO XVII

A document dated to 1674 referred to a campaign of extirpation of idols held in Atacama (Lasana, Caspana and Ayquina) appears to account for the colonial survival of certain instruments of prehispanic religious worship, specifically snuff trays for inhaling hallucinogens that were used in shamanic rituals. The description given in the document on such objects is clear enough to establish correlates -at least in one case, a paraphernalia style from the Late Intermediate Period and Inca Horizon in Alacamenian area, which focuses on the representation of the head of a feline. In this paper, formal and iconographic aspects of this style are discussed for the first time. Additionally, we propose that through the information recorded in this document, it seems possible to detect an unprecedented phenomenon of transformation and redefinition of objects of ancient prehispanic worship in the new colonial scenario: this would have happened through a significant modification of the original function of the snuff trays in question, giving a new sense of the cult itself.