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One explanation for this behavior is that the Chinchorro people were not trying to preserve the body in it’s physical state, but perhaps trying to mold and transform the actual bodies into something else– something more in the form of art. In mummification, bodies were taken apart, then reassembled and decorated with ash paste and color. The mummies were also adorned with wigs and sometimes masks. Clearly, the visual aspect of these creations was important. Bernardo Arriaza, a scholar of physical anthropology, explores the idea of the mummies as ritual art in his article, “Making the Dead Beautiful: Mummies as Art”. Specifically, Arriaza cites “the plasticity of their shapes, colors, and the mixed media used in their creation,” as indicators of their function as art. Arriaza sees the mummies as “statues, the encased skeletons of departed ones.” In this way, we can view the Chinchorro mummies as a form of “ritual art,” which can be generally defined as symbolic objects with spiritual meaning. Nevertheless, it seems likely that the mummies were seen as temporary pieces of ritual art.