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The Geoglyph as a Medium for Anarchist Ritual

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2020

Darryl Wilkinson Open the ORCID record for Darryl Wilkinson [Opens in a new window]
Darryl Wilkinson*
Affiliation:
Department of Religion 6036 Thornton Hall 19 College Street Dartmouth CollegeHanover, NH03755USA Email: Darryl.A.Wilkinson@Dartmouth.edu
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Abstract

Geoglyphs are widely seen as an expression of past sacred landscapes. In this article, I offer a new theoretical approach to geoglyphs, interpreting them as a distinctly anarchic and decentralized medium for ritual activity. When we define geoglyphs as large-scale images, and exclude other phenomena such as earthworks, it is clear that their occurrence is actually quite limited in space and time. Almost all known examples of geoglyphs are located in the Americas, and they are particularly associated with ‘middle-range’ societies, rather than states or empires. Geoglyphs produced by hunter-gatherer communities are also comparatively rare. I regard this pattern as a direct consequence of the anarchist affordances of the geoglyph medium. In agricultural societies where regional integration and incipient centralization were taking place (e.g. the ancient Nasca), geoglyphs provided a decentralizing counterbalance. I therefore theorize the incorporation of geoglyph-based ritual practices as a historically situated process of constitutional reform, whereby ancient peoples consciously sought to redistribute power and authority.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , February 2021 , pp. 95 - 110
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

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