ROCK ART, STYLE AND CHRONOLOGY: THE NEED OF A HISTORICAL CONTEXT FOR THE ROCK ART MANIFESTATIONS IN THE COAST AND VALLEYS OF NORTHERN CHILE

We discuss the relevance of the concept of style in archeology and its Cultural and tempo-historical value beyond its specific chronology. We sustain that there is a gap of knowledge regarding the social processes involved in the production and use of the Pre-Hispanic art, due to the lack of understanding of its history. We discuss why chronology is important beyond specific dates in the context of seen archeology as a social science that pursues the relationship between material remains and particular social practices. In this reflexive work we highlight that rock art needs to be considered the result of practices and actions upon the material world, carried out by subjects that were part of the social processes that occurred throughout the pre-Hispanic chronological sequence, in the Western Valleys zone of Northern Chile. We argue that chronology is not important by itself but in terms of its ability to define the historical frame within which the material culture (in this case, rock art) was developed and acquired significance.