Códigos estéticos, expresiones plásticas y modos de representación en la cerámica del Formativo en Yutopián (Valle del Cajón, Noroeste argentino)

Plastic expressions, as any other production, are creations that arise within a certain historic and cultural context, thus being subject to aesthetic codes, social preferences, and valuations specific of the social spaces in which such manifestations were produced, circulated and consumed. These expressions are representations as far as they are objectivations of beliefs, ideas and values of particular social groups, presenting themselves as a specific mode of representation that is socially and culturally situated.In the case of ceramic vessels, we know that these have participated of a number of actions in the everyday life of the past. This article analyses the plastic resources which were mobilized and put ‘into action’ in the vessels of Yutopián, a Formative village of the Cajón valley, Northwestern Argentina, dated to the first millennium of the Christian era. A detailed study of the different contexts of two household compounds evidenced a differential display of the representational modes that were chosen, the expressive resources that were utilized and the types of recipients used, thus allowing to advance some ideas regarding the role of objects and plastic expressions in different situations of the social life.