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Castro Rojas, Victoria
Further Reading
CARTAJENA, I. 2009. Explorando la variabilidad
morfométrica
del
conjunto
de
camélidos
pequeñosdurante el Arcaico Tardı́o y el Formativo
Temprano en quebrada Tulán, norte de Chile. Revista
del Museo de Antropologı́a 2: 199-212.
CARTAJENA, I.,L. NÚÑEZ & M. GROSJEAN. 2007. Camelid
domestication in the western slope of the Puna de
Atacama, northern Chile. Anthropozoologica
42(2): 155-73.
CARTAJENA I., P. LÓPEZ & I. MARTÍNEZ. 2010. New camelid
(Artiodactyla: Camelidae) record from the late Pleistocene of Calama (second region, Chile):
a morphological and morphometric discussion.
Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas 27(2):
1997-212.
CARTAJENA, I., M. NÚÑEZ & L. NÚÑEZ. 2010.
Phoenicopteridae exploitation in the Salar de Atacama
Basin (3.000-2.200 BP), northern Chile, in W.
Prummel. J.T. Zeiler & D.C. Brinkhuizen (ed.) Birds
in archaeology (Groningen Archaeological Studies
12): 103-15. Eelde: Barkhuis.
CARTAJENA, I., P. LÓPEZ, D. CARABIAS, C. MORALES & G.
VARGAS. 2011. Arqueologı́a subacuática y tafonomı́a:
Recientes avances en el estudio de sitios finipleistocénicos sumergidos en la costa pacı́fico de Chile
central. Antı́poda 13: 203-25.
VON DEN DRIESCH, A., I. CARTAJENA & H. MANHART. 2004.
The late PPNB site of Ba’ja, Jordan: the faunal remains
(1997 season), in H.D. Bienert, H.G.K. Gebel & R.
Neef (ed.). Central settlements in Neolithic Jordan
(Studies in Early Near Eastern Production, Subsistence
and Environment 5): 271-88. Berlin: ex oriente.
Castro Rojas, Victoria
Calogero M. Santoro1 and Isabel Cartajena2
1
Instituto de Alta Investigación, Centro de
Investigaciones del Hombre en el Desierto,
Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile
2
Department of Anthropology, Universidad de
Chile, Santiago de Chile, Chile
Basic Biographical Information
Marı́a Victoria Castro Rojas was born in Santiago
in Chile on July 5, 1944 (Fig. 1). Known as
Vicky, she was the second daughter of Luisa
Rojas and Juan Castro, a biology and chemistry
teacher, who was strongly involved in public
education. At an early age, Victoria lost both
Castro Rojas, Victoria, Fig. 1 Victoria Castro at her
office in the Department of Anthropology, Universidad
de Chile, her intellectual refuge (Photo courtesy of
Department of Communication of Facultad Ciencias
Sociales, Universidad de Chile)
her parents. Soon after this, she moved to live
with her elder sister Nidia del Carmen with whom
she became very close. Probably, this sad lost and
the experience in attending a boarding school
triggered in her a strong sense of empathy and
warmth. One of her outstanding qualities is that
she always finds something special and valuable
in each student and person.
The academic career of Marı́a Victoria Castro
Rojas began in 1969 when she became an assistant in archaeology with the Department of
Anthropology, Universidad de Chile. Besides
her deep vocation in archaeology, her extraordinary teaching skills were greatly enriched by her
previous training as teacher in philosophy (1978,
Universidad de Chile). It was around this time
that she obtained a position with the Department
of Anthropology at the Universidad de Chile. In
1982, she became a professional archaeologist,
having obtained a bachelor degree in philosophy
with a minor in prehistory and archaeology from
Universidad de Chile in 1981. In 1998, with an
outstanding final dissertation about evangelization and Andean religion in the Southern Andes,
she obtained her master’s degree in ethnohistory
from the University of Chile.
Victoria Castro has received national and
international awards and recognition, as well as
numerous grants and fellowships that highlight
Castro Rojas, Victoria
her career trajectory and her constant dedication
and conviction in the importance of academic
education. In 2000, she was distinguished as the
faculty’s best teacher of the anthropology program, which earned her the highest recognition
of the Universidad de Chile to their academics.
During 2003, she was awarded the Mujer
Generación XXI distinction, annually given to
21 outstanding women for their work at the
Universidad de Chile. In 2005, she received the
Medal to the Academic Merit Valentin Letelier,
a recognition by the University of Chile awarded
only to those academics who, through their permanent and relevant actions, have made
a significant contribution to the institution,
through science and education. In 2007, Victoria
Castro was appointed emeritus professor at the
University of Chile.
In 2009, the Sociedad Chilena de Arqueologı́a
honored Victoria Castro for her outstanding contributions to archaeology in Chile and South
America at the launch of her book De I´dolos
a Santos at the XVIII Congreso Nacional de
Arqueologı́a Chilena, the national archaeology
congress of Chile. It would be remiss not to note
that Professor Rojas’ role as the mother of three
sons is as important as her contribution to the
academic world. Despite the difficulties
involved, she has managed to successfully balance her demanding academic responsibilities
with family duties. As one of her sons said,
“She is simply the best!”
Major Accomplishments
Marı́a Victoria Castro Rojas has been a key figure
in the creation and development of academic and
professional institutions. Since the 1960s, she has
made outstanding contributions as professor in
graduate and professional programs in archaeology, anthropology, museology, ecology, and
community training, none of which were in existence when she started her academic career. Since
1973, Victoria has trained several generations of
undergraduate students in archaeology and cultural anthropology, who today are the Chilean
scientific core who promote innovative research
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in the fields of archaeology, anthropology, ethnology, and ecology. Recently with the creation
of graduate programs in the Chilean university
system, Marı́a Victoria Castro Rojas has been
invited to be a faculty member of both master’s
and doctoral programs in these fields.
With more than 40 years of highly active and
influential research and teaching, Professor
Victoria Castro is a highly respected figure in
Andean American archaeology. This was not an
easy task for a female scholar whose career evolved
within a rather tough – and at a times dangerous –
institutional and political environment.
Throughout her career, Professor Castro created and participated in numerous multidisciplinary projects that have integrated different
fields and included both national and international
specialists (botanists, ecologist, marine biologist,
linguists) to address new questions about the
Andean past in the context of the northern Chile
Atacama Desert (Castro & Aldunate 2004; Castro
& Varela 2004). For this purpose, she has obtained
grants from national and international sources. She
has been recognized for her great generosity in
creating long-lasting collaborative groups with
scholars and students from both inside and outside
of the country.
Professor Castro has a wide range of research
interests that span from early Archaic societies to
modern local communities. A particular interest
in her studies is the social structures, ideology,
and technology of farming societies that
inhabited the valleys and oases of the Atacama
Desert. The complex processes involved in creating cultural landscapes during the Inka estate
expansion into the Atacama have been especially
significant in her career. In recognition of her
work in this area, UNESCO invited her to be
part of the international panel of experts for the
nomination of the Qhapaq Ñan (Inka Royal Road
system) as one the largest human artifact systems
in the world. This megaproject was promoted by
six countries in South America, all of which were
part of the Inka road network.
Professor Castro has been involved in the
creation of programs for the preservation of
archaeological resources, ethnoarchaeology, and
cultural studies and has long promoted the active
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participation of local communities in archaeological research projects (Castro & Varela 1994;
Castro et al. 2013). She has been a visible
leader in fighting for the recognition of local
communities, for the respect and preservation of
natural and cultural patrimony (Castro 2008), and
for the demands of human and professional
rights, even risking her integrity and job position
at a time when such views were politically
punished.
Throughout her career, Victoria Castro has
been able to combine and innovate different
lines of inquiry, the results of which have been
published widely nationally and internationally.
She has been very concerned with transferring
knowledge to local communities and to the general public and in making community people
active agents of their ethnogenesis processes
and reconstruction of ethnic identity.
Victoria has been tireless in writing and communicating Chile’s pre-Hispanic past within
a Latin American context. Aiming to consolidate
a different view with regard to the pre-Hispanic
past has not always been considered in political,
economic, educational, and cultural policies
(Castro 2004). Victoria has managed to reach
out to audiences beyond her home country by
publishing in English and by participating in
international events that bring her into contact
with peers throughout Latin America. Few
archaeologists of the region have been so successful in crossing disciplinary and geographic
borders, considering that our modern borders
have also been intellectual boundaries. In sum,
Victoria Castro is a superb scholar.
Cross-References
▶ Andes: Origins and Development of
Agriculture
▶ Andes: Prehistoric Period
▶ Archaeology and Politics
▶ Chile’s World Archaeological Heritage and its
Management
▶ Cultural Heritage and Communities
▶ Ethnoarchaeology
Castro Rojas, Victoria
References
CASTRO, V. 2004. El origen de la vida en las cosmogonı́as
prehispánicas en América. Revista Bitrania 4(1):
1-10.
- 2008. La papa (Solanum sp.) contexto social
e ideológico en sus zonas de desarrollo originarias.
Revista del Jardı́n Botánico Chagual 6(6): 33-43.
CASTRO. V. & C. ALDUNATE. 2004. La dieta andina en
América Latina, in F. Leighton & I. Urquiaga (ed.)
Dietas mediterráneas. La evidencia cientı́fica: 202-10.
Santiago: Ediciones de la Pontificia Universidad
Católica de Chile.
CASTRO, V. & V. VARELA. (ed.) 1994. Ceremonias de
tierra y agua. Ritos milenarios Andinos. Santiago:
FONDART, Ministerio de Educación y Fundación
Andes.
CASTRO. V., C. ALDUNATE & V. VARELA. 2013.
Experiencias en etnoarqueologı́a, in B. Cremonte &
M.E. Albeck (ed.) Actas del Taller Internacional de
Arqueologı́a del Noroeste Argentino y Andes Centro
sur Las Tierras Altas del Área Centro sur Andina,
entre el 1000 y el 1600 d.C. (TANOA II). Jujuy:
Universidad Nacional de Jujuy, Centro Regional de
Estudios Arqueológicos (in press).
Further Reading
ALDUNATE, C., J. BERENGUER, V. CASTRO, L. CORNEJO, J.L.
MARTÍNEZ & C. SINCLAIRE. 1986. Sobre la cronologı́a
del Loa Superior. Chungara 16-17: 333-46.
ALFONSO M., V. STANDEN & V. CASTRO. 2007. The adoption
of agriculture among northern Chile populations in
the Azapa Valley 9000-1000 BP, in M.N. Cohen &
G.M.M. Crane-Kramer (ed.) Ancient health.
Skeletal indicators of agricultural and economic intensification: 113–29. Gainsville: University of Florida
Press.
CASTRO, V. 1990. Artı́fices del Barro. Santiago: Museo
Chileno Arte Precolombino.
- 1993. Extirpación de idolatrı́as en Atacama, siglo XVII,
in Catolicismo y extirpación de idolatrı́as. Siglos
XVI-XVIII (Cuadernos para la Historia de la
Evangelización en América Latina 5): 347-66.
Cusco: Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos
Bartolomé de Las Casas.
- 2000. Case study: environmental perception and the
sacred in the southern Andes, northern Chile, in
M. Price & N. Butt (ed.) Forest in sustainable mountain development. A state of knowledge report for
2000: 126-8. Oxford: CABI Publishing.
- 2006. Plan de acción regional, Chile. El Qhapaq Ñan
Camino Principal Andino, in Plan de acción regional
para un proceso de integración y cooperación:
154-82. Lima: BID_UNESCO.
- 2007a. A propósito de raı́ces históricas de nuestra crisis
ecológica: Cuarenta años después ¿qué hay de nuevo?
Revista Ambiente y Desarrollo 23(1): 95-7.
Cat: Domestication
- 2007b. El más grande artefacto andino. Qhapaq Ñan en
el contexto del Tawantinsuyu y de sus contemporáneos
americanos, in Programa Qhapaq Ñan como
patrimonio de la humanidad. Paris: World Heritage
Series of UNESCO.
- 2009a. De idolos a santos. Evangelización y religión
andina en los Andes del sur. Santiago: Fondo de
Publicaciones Americanistas Universidad de Chile –
Centro de Investigaciones Diego Barros Arana.
Colección Antropologı́a, Dirección de Bibliotecas,
Archivos y Museos (DIBAM).
- 2009b. La oralidad y su importancia en la transmisión de
técnicas y valores, in Organización de las Naciones
Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura (ed.)
Artesanos de arquitectura de tierra en América Latina
y el Caribe. La técnica, la tradición oral y formas de
transmisión del oficio: 49-65. México: Oficina de la
UNESCO.
- 2010. Sabores Ancestrales en el norte prehispánico, in
C. Sciolla (ed.) Historia y cultura de la alimentación
en Chile. Miradas y saberes de nuestra culinaria.
Santiago: Catalonia.
CASTRO, V. & V. VARELA. 2004. De cómo camina el sol
durante junio, e lo que ve en el cielo y de lo que se
comenta y se practica en la Tierra. Oralidad y rituales en
la subregión de rı́o Salado, norte de Chile, in M. Boccas,
J. Broda & G. Pereira (ed.) Etno y arqueoastronomı́a en
las Américas: 285-98. Santiago: Memorias del
Simposio ARQ- 13 del 51 Congreso Internacional De
Americanistas (julio 2003).
CASTRO, V., C. ALDUNATE & J. BERENGUER. 1984. Orı́genes
altiplánicos de la Fase Toconce. Estudios Atacameños
7: 209-35.
CASTRO, V., C. ALDUNATE & J. HIDALGO (ed.) 2000. Nispa
ninchis. Decimos diciendo. Conversaciones con John
Murra. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos- Institute
of Andean Research.
CASTRO, V., V. VARELA, C. ALDUNATE & E. ARANEDA. 2004.
Principios orientadores y metodologı́a para el
estudio del Qhapaq Ñan en Atacama: desde el
Portezuelo del Inka hasta Rı́o Grande. Chungara 36:
461-79.
CASTRO, V., C. ALDUNATE & V. VARELA. 2012. Paisajes
culturales de Cobija, costa de Antofagasta, Chile.
Revista de Antropologı́a Americana 26: 97-128.
CASTRO, V., M. ESCOBAR & D. SALAZAR. 2012. Una mirada
antropológica al devenir minero de Taltal y Paposo.
Chungara Revista de Antropologı́a Chilena 44:
401-17.
SCHIAPPACASSE, V. V. CASTRO & H. NIEMEYER. 1989; Los
desarrollos regionales en el Norte Grande, in J. Hidalgo,
V. Schiappacasse, H. Niemeyer, C. Aldunate &
I. Solimano (ed.) Culturas de Chile. Prehistoria, desde
sus orı́genes hasta los albores de la conquista: 181-220.
Santiago: Editorial Andrés Bello.
VILLAGRÁN, C. & V. CASTRO. 2004. Ciencia indı́gena de los
Andes del norte de Chile. Santiago: Programa de
Biodiversidad- Universidad de Chile, Editorial
Universitaria.
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Cat: Domestication
Jean-Denis Vigne
CNRS, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle,
Paris, France
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Basic Species Information
Based on numerous representations of cats in
Egyptian art, it has been widely accepted that
Egypt was the place where the intensification of
the relationship between cats and humans first
began. More specifically, several wall paintings
dated to the sixteenth century BCE (18th
Dynasty, Middle Empire) dedicated to the cat
goddess Bastet make clear that hunters of the
Nile Valley used cats to threaten wild birds and
chase them from reeds (Zeuner 1963). In the
tomb of Baket III, a local administrator at Beni
Hasan during the 12th Dynasty (c. 1950 BCE),
a painting with a cat associated with a human
faces a rat suggests that cats were also considered
efficient companions for fighting pest rodents
(Malek 1993). Additional evidence comes from
a tomb in the Abydos cemetery (1980–1801
BCE) that contained 17 complete cat skeletons
associated with offering pots.
It is not clear, however, if the cats of the
Middle Empire can be considered domestic
animals (controlled and biologically modified
by the interaction with humans) or if they were
only captive wild animals used by people. Juliette
Clutton-Brock (1981) suggested that even
modern cats are “intermediate between domestic
and domesticated,” and she excluded it from the
“man-made animals” or even from the “exploited
captives” and instead created a specific designation of “exploiting captive.” Except for the
sophisticated breeds which have been selected
during the twentieth century, the behavior and
morphology of domestic cats are the least
modified by domestication. This is especially
true for the skeleton and it is nearly impossible
to differentiate archaeological bones of wild cats
from those of domestic cats, except the brain case