ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the careful attention to alternative ontologies of scale introduces new interpretive possibilities for such miniature objects. The chapter uses the theory of perspectivism to think through miniature pots from the La Candelaria archaeological culture of first-millennium AD Northwest Argentina. In archaeology the default measure of scale has tended to be the body: miniaturization is an artifact of scale change in relation to the self-evident human body. All sorts of dualisms are at work in the archaeological imaginary of the region, including a geo-archaeology of gender in which male warrior imagery is seen to dominate the highlands and female imagery the lowlands, with subsequent research bias. Interpretation has proven a challenge, but it usually focuses on ritual activities, such as grave offerings or sympathetic magic, where something of the power of the original is captured by the miniature, as in the case of architectural models widespread in pre-Hispanic South America.
