ABSTRACT
Rock art is addressed in this chapter as material and practice, both being historically situated. By comparing two sets of rock art from north-central Chile, rock paintings and deeply carved petroglyphs, made in two different moments of local prehistory, we discuss how rock art was part of specific, historic assemblages in which it became meaningful. The transformations in rock art are then understood as evidence of broader transformations in the assemblages in which it participated. We propose that these changes are related to new ways in which hunter-gatherer communities engaged with their world, which we approach by examining the affects of additive and subtractive techniques.
