Dialogues in Cuban Archaeology

8 / Mythical Expressions in the Ceramic Art of
Agricultural Groups in the Prehistoric Antilles
Pedro Godo
When the archaeology of Cuba reoriented its perspective in the 1960s to the
methodological and conceptual foundations of historical materialism, the priority
of research became knowledge of the socioeconomic and general infrastructural
processes of our indigenous communities. It was not until the 1980s
that investigations of the superstructural sphere were de¤nitively revived.
In my case, motivated by the works of Arrom (1975), López Baralt (1977),
Alegría (1978), Dacal Moure (1972), Guarch Delmonte and Rodríguez Cullel
(1980), García Arévalo (1989), Rives (1985), Guarch Delmonte (1987), and
other authors, I wanted to explore the artistic/mythical milieu with the purpose
of going beyond the simple effort to associate common ¤gurative images
with the mythic zemies, individuals, and animals appearing in the relations
of Friar Pané (1990 [1498]) from Hispaniola.
Going beyond the description of traditions and the unreliable interpretations
of historical observers, I became interested in investigating the abstract
or geometric expressions of higher complexity. This inevitably led to approaching
the semiotics of artistic forms, to consider them as carriers of information
through the use of symbols and systems of symbols. Beginning this
kind of endeavor required at least an elementary theoretical preparation
through the works of Saussure (1973), Eco (1972), Lévi-Strauss (1970), and
other authors. The history of my work on this topic, presented here, represents
only the beginning of a long-term research project.