A Iconografia e o Estilo Estético como Demarcadores de limites e Identidades Sociais

Abstract

Marajoara archaeological ceramics are decorated with graphics that seem to represent mythological characters and scenes that possibly told the social story of the group, related to the way those societies were structured. The fact that only one group within the society had access to these symbolic objects suggests that the graphs would have been a form of communication about social identities and hierarchies. The description of the decoration of the artifacts seeks to identify those elements that may have been used as social and gender identity marks, especially in the observation of the iconography of objects in the funerary context. Based on the study of the form, decoration and iconography of the material collected in the Belém treasure from site PA-JO-15: Camutins, stored in the Mário Ferreira Simões Technical Reserve of the Archeology Department of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, and using structural methodology, we have identified minimal meaningful units that relate in different ways to the various artifacts, building a visual language that was possibly linked to the cosmology of the groups and their social positions. The work has allowed the construction of a grammar, based on the elaboration of rules of association and functioning of the organization of decorative motifs, which will enable a more effective understanding of the structural organization of social groups based on ceramic art.