In her essay “The Problem with (the Term) Art,” art historian Carolyn Dean argues that the category of “art” as an entity that demands special attention is not at all universal. To call things “art” that were not created under such premises — Sherry Errington calls this “art by appropriation” — forces non-Western objects into Western value systems. Dean references pre-Hispanic Andean objects (like the Puma Rock and Funerary Rock at Machu Picchu) that held symbolic meaning yet had no resemblance to animals or humans. These abstract structures were studied much less than their obviously representational counterparts, and when they were studied, comparisons to specific images (like the “puma”) persisted. This kind of iconocentric looking is often taken for granted in our attentional habits in Western visual culture. 

In reality, the Inca invested significant value in rocks regardless of whether they were carved by human hands. Sometimes this was as straightforward as creating a boundary around a natural rock. At other times it took forms as intricate as the patterns on the Sayhuite Monolith. Rocks called Chacrayoq embodied the owners of the fields, and Puruauca embodied warriors protecting the realm. These objects have powerful attentional qualities, yet they meaningfully resist the Western label of "art."