THE CONCEPT OF PERSON AND THE AGENCY OF THINGS. A VIEW FROM THE ROCK ART

Abstract

In archaeology one tends to assume implicitly a conceptualization of person associated with the human species and with the notion of discrete and biological body with rational potential. At the same time, a community formed just by human persons as social agents and as the unique creators of social reality is presupposed. This paper presents a critical review of these categories. First we will discuss that our own notion of person –from a middle class academic- comes more from the western and modern society historical process than from those of the traditional society we study. Later, we will analyze what brings us the Ethnography about this notion in traditional non-Western societies. This process allows us to redefine the notion of agency in archaeology by consider not only human but also not human entities –animals, rocks, objects or images- as persons with intentionality and agency that also have the capacity to affect the social reality. To do this, it is necessary to adopt a relational approach. In this context the notion of person will be analyzed from the figures painted on the rock.