ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with an invitation to rethink things and objects as parts of a relational web. It argues that multiple agencies coincide in such relationships; the archaeological record can thus be conceived of as a configuration of multiple parts in relation. A case study of ceramic assemblages used for cooking and consuming food in northwest Argentina during the ninth century illustrates the archaeological possibilities of this argument. The boundaries of material contexts are discussed in relation to an ethno archaeological study of Bolivian urban chicha makers residing in Crdoba, Argentina. The chapter investigates the making of chicha by Bolivian women in domestic settings. An ethnoarchaeological study of traditional Andean maize beer preparation by Bolivians living in an urban context in Argentina will help to elucidate these issues. The chicha was manufactured in a materially heterogeneous and spatially discontinuous relational context of blurred boundaries, carried out inside and outside, and simultaneously involving human and material agencies.
