Emblems of Cultural Identity in Early Andean Art

This chapter employs the traditional art historical methods of formal analysis and iconography to understand head motifs engraved on Cupisnique ceramics that were made between 1200 and 200 BCE. Rather than characterizing a small social group operating in isolation, these motifs and objects serve as indicators of cultural identity, affiliation, and transmission, expressing complex interactions between neighboring cultures. In other words, the head motifs on Cupisnique ceramics display the cultural networks inside of which the Cupisnique people saw themselves. Through conscious combination of various techniques and symbols appropriated from other cultures, Cupisnique artists created innovative objects unique to their own society. In particular, the Cupisnique people combined the post-firing engraving techniques of the Chorrera and Machalilla cultures of Ecuador with head motifs appropriated from the architectural friezes of Huaca de los Reyes, a public ritual space, to create small, personal items. These objects with imagery and techniques appropriated into a new, private context become a key distinction of the Cupisnique culture against its neighbors, antecedents, and trade partners.