Abstract
Harvey Whitehouse has proposed a theoretical or an organizational framework for studying change and stability in religious systems. Its application in a Late Ceramic Caribbean context suggests an expansive and fluid character to religious or spiritual organization and expression. The physical characteristics and iconography of rock art and other material classes including ceramics and sculpted stone objects (stone collars, elbow stones, and three-pointers or cemís) coupled with ethnohistorical accounts indicate a shift from less structured organization in the Early Ceramic to a more structured one by the Late Ceramic. These data sets also indicate that it was the Taíno elite religious and political segments of societies that were involved in efforts to control ritual objects and places in order to augment their individual and collective influence.
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Hayward, M.H., Schieppati, F.J., Cinquino, M.A. (2014). Religious Organization in the Late Ceramic Caribbean. In: Gillette, D., Greer, M., Helene Hayward, M., Breen Murray, W. (eds) Rock Art and Sacred Landscapes. One World Archaeology, vol 8. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8406-6_13
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