Threepointers on Trial: A biographical study of Amerindian ritual artefacts from the pre-Columbian Caribbean

Threepointers are amongst the most enigmatic artefacts of the pre-Columbian insular Caribbean (ca. 200 BC – AD 1492). According to the ethnohistoric chronicles they possessed a largely ritual function and were designated as zemies, Amerindian spirit-objects. Nevertheless, what threepointers actually signified and how they were used is not known, nor have previous studies been able to verify the existing hypotheses. This pilot study explores a biographical way of visualising the threepointer artefact group, addressing the question of how they operated in Amerindian society. Microscopic trace analysis has been carried out on a sample of 59 threepointers, describing the microwear patterns that developed due to manufacture and use. Supplemented with data on the material proveniences and archaeological contexts, the research presents a broad range of evidence. These data are inserted in a biographical framework aimed at reconstruction of the cultural expectations behind the biographical...Show moreThreepointers are amongst the most enigmatic artefacts of the pre-Columbian insular Caribbean (ca. 200 BC – AD 1492). According to the ethnohistoric chronicles they possessed a largely ritual function and were designated as zemies, Amerindian spirit-objects. Nevertheless, what threepointers actually signified and how they were used is not known, nor have previous studies been able to verify the existing hypotheses. This pilot study explores a biographical way of visualising the threepointer artefact group, addressing the question of how they operated in Amerindian society. Microscopic trace analysis has been carried out on a sample of 59 threepointers, describing the microwear patterns that developed due to manufacture and use. Supplemented with data on the material proveniences and archaeological contexts, the research presents a broad range of evidence. These data are inserted in a biographical framework aimed at reconstruction of the cultural expectations behind the biographical trajectories of threepointers. As threepointers moved through five distinct phases in their biographies, being cause, conception, birth, life, and death, they were continuously recontextualised in the eyes of society. The thesis investigates how this process reflects on the cultural and societal values of the Amerindians. A reinterpretation of the ethnohistoric chronicles using ethnographic observations circumscribes this biographical framework in the context of Amerindian ontologies. Intersubjectivity between people and threepointers was the mechanism that allowed threepointers to interact with human sociality as autonomous actors. Through this mechanism, threepointers could be drawn to the human habitus, acculturated, and made to act on their own subjectivity. This study finds that threepointers were enormously variable in ‘conception’ and ‘birth’, knew active uses during ‘life’, but had no common significance in ‘death’. It argues that their unique existence is the direct result of their potential for intersubjectivity. Threepointers effectively functioned as devices capable of influencing the natural flow of the world.Show less

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Threepointers on Trial: A biographical study of Amerindian ritual artefacts from the pre-Columbian Caribbean