Processing Activities and Differentiation of Bird Utilization During the Late Holocene in the Beagle Channel Region (Southern South America)

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Tivoli
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Southern South America ◽  
Beagle Channel ◽  
Channel Region

Is the ‘Environment’ Good to Eat or Good to Paint? Faunal Consumption and Avoidance among Hunter-Gatherer-Fishers in the Beagle Channel Region (Tierra del Fuego, South America)

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dánae Fiore ◽  
Angélica Tivoli
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Tierra Del Fuego ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Beagle Channel ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Hypothetical Scenario ◽  
Human Practices ◽  
Industrial Societies ◽  
Optimality Models ◽  
Channel Region

This chapter discusses some aspects of the multi-dimensional nature of human–environment relationships. It focuses on the interaction established between people and animals in the Beagle Channel region (Tierra del Fuego, South America; Figure 5.1) through an analysis of taxon selection or avoidance in two inter-related spheres: subsistence and ceremonial art. The selection or avoidance of a particular species can be related to environmental, economic, political, and ideological factors, and our aim is to point out which of these factors influenced the high exploitation of certain taxa and the low representation of others. We achieve this by comparing archaeological data with spatially and temporally contemporaneous ethnographic information about the representation of animal species in ceremonial body paintings. Thus, we seek to explain whether the selection of some species and the avoidance of others in the subsistence sphere was being reinforced by or forbidden according to symbolic values that stemmed from the ceremonial sphere. Such questions derive from a theoretical premise that dismisses the notion of absolute optimality in human practices. It proposes instead that people’s actions and decisions are not guided only by rational principles and cost-minimizing aims: they can also be non-rational and non-optimal, and yet can make a socio-economic system function and reproduce efficiently through time and space without collapse. We argue that archaeological techniques and data have much to contribute to an understanding of the complexity of human–environment relations—particularly the ability to critique the overly simplistic economic models that often feed into popular and bureaucratic approaches to human environments. During the last fifteen years, one of the most popular approaches to subsistence in prehistoric and non-industrial societies has been the application of optimality models (e.g. Broughton 1994; Grayson and Delpech 1998; Nagaoka 2002, among others). In principle, these models were conceived as methodological tools through which the researcher lays out a hypothetical scenario of how resources should be consumed if people were trying to minimize costs and maximize benefits towards reaching an optimal result.

scholarly journals Pre-Hispanic settlements in hydrometeorologically susceptible areas during the late Holocene: The Upper Delta of the Paraná River Case

The Holocene ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (12) ◽  
pp. 1801-1811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carola Castiñeira Latorre ◽  
Eduardo Apolinaire ◽  
Adriana M Blasi ◽  
Mariano Bonomo ◽  
Gustavo Politis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Paraná River ◽  
Resource Exploitation ◽  
Southern South America ◽  
Settlement Systems ◽  
Parana River ◽  
La Plata Basin ◽  
Human Colonization ◽  
Residential Camps

In this paper, we present the results of the geoarchaeological studies carried out in two archaeological localities of the Upper Delta of the Paraná River (Argentina). The main objective of these studies is to depict the pre-Hispanic strategies involved in the colonization and settlement of southern South America wetlands. Paraná Delta is one of the most conspicuous areas of these lowlands and comprises a large wetland macrosystem. Its current geomorphological configuration was established after the last transgressive mid-Holocene event c. 6000 14C yr BP. In this environment, a high ecological heterogeneity, with diverse and abundant tropical and temperate biota, was developed. These features were important factors to the human colonization and utilization of these wetlands. However, this environment has the highest hydrometeorological susceptibility of La Plata basin. This susceptibility had an impact on settlement systems and resource exploitation strategies established in the area since at least 2000 14C yr BP. These strategies involved at least two settlement types: semi-permanent residential camps and transitory camps oriented to exploit particular resources. The semi-permanent settlements were located in anthropogenic elevated mounds, locally known as ‘cerritos’, and were not subjected to seasonal inundations. Conversely, the transitory camps are found in levees exposed to recurrent flooding.

Stable isotope evidence supports pelagic fishing by hunter-gatherers in southern South America during the Late Holocene

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 486-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atilio Francisco Zangrando ◽  
Luciana Riccialdelli ◽  
Sayuri Kochi ◽  
Jonathan W. Nye ◽  
Augusto Tessone
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
South America ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Southern South America ◽  
Isotope Evidence ◽  
Pelagic Fishing
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document