Before Farming: the archaeology and anthropology of hunter-gatherers

ref: Before Farming 2005/2 article 2

Mobility strategies in Colombia's middle mountain range between the early and middle Holocene

Francisco Javier Aceituno Bocanegra
Faculty of Anthropology, University of Antioquia, PO Box 1226, Medellin, Colombia csfjace@antares.udea.educ.co

Neyla Castillo Espitia
Faculty of Anthropology, University of Antioquia, PO Box 1226, Medellin, Colombia neycas@epm.net

Keywords: Colombia, Cordillera Central, mountain rainforest, hunter-gatherers, plant cultivation, mobility, territoriality

Abstract

This article is about the mobility of hunter-gatherers and cultivators, who inhabited two regions of mountain rainforest in the Cordillera Central of Colombia between the early and middle Holocene. It aims to demonstrate that in tropical rainforests mobility is a more effective economic and social strategy than sedentary settlement. Given the poor soils and low carrying capacity of these environments, mobility provides a strategy which allows for periodic regeneration of resources. We argue that the hunter-gatherer cultivators who lived in the valleys of the Porce and middle Cauca maintained mobility even though the first evidence for cultivars appears between 7000 BP and 6000 BP. The later introduction of sedentary settlement was not due to plant cultivation, but rather to other factors such as the necessity to control territorial resources. Social factors thus played their part in influencing the reduction of mobility to produce the settlement patterns described by the Spanish chroniclers across the study area.

ref: Before Farming 2005/2 article 3

Use of rockshelters by carnivores in the Puna. Implications for hunter-gatherer archaeology

Mariana Mondini
CONICET-INAPL (Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano), Universidad de Buenos Aires, 3 de febrero 1378, (1426) Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
mmondini@filo.uba.ar

Keywords: Rockshelters, carnivores, Puna, South America, taphonomy

Abstract

This paper deals with mammalian carnivore dens in rockshelters in the Puna of Andean South America. This is analysed in relation to the potential overlap of interest in topographic resources with human predators and the use of these refuges by both agents. Different Puna areas have been surveyed, and eighteen modern taphonomic sites have been studied in the light of local carnivore ecology. Here the results concerning the use of space by carnivores are presented, together with predictions regarding the differential distribution of the taphonomic processes they generate. The aim is to assess which archaeological sites are most prone to have been affected by these processes.

Once proximity to critical resources is satisfied - especially water and predictable sources of hunting and scavenging represented by human residences - den distribution seems to be a function, at least partially, of rockshelter availability. Where rockshelters abound, more archaeological sites in these loci can be expected to have been affected, although the rate of occupation by carnivores through time at each site need not be high. A recurrent factor is rockshelter size: small shelters tend to be preferentially selected by carnivores, implying little interest in the kinds of shelters commonly selected by the hunter-gatherers of the region, at least as a destination of food transport. Finally, an account is given of the factors that can introduce variation in these expectations.

ref: Before Farming 2005/2 article 4

Current perspectives on human-animal relationships in Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, southern Patagonia

Sebastián Muñoz
CONICET and Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
amunoz@filo.uba.ar

Keywords: Hunter-gatherers, zooarchaeology, Tierra del Fuego

Abstract

This paper deals with human populations in insular environments. The archaeology of the southern end of the American continent comprises a particularly relevant study in this regard, as it consists of an archipelago of land-bridge islands with varying characteristics, where the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego is the largest. In this paper, a biogeographical perspective is applied to review current knowledge of human-animal relationships in southern Patagonia, and different levels at which insularisation would have been important to the hunter-gatherers of the Atlantic watershed of the island during the last 2300 years are discussed. The results of a zooarchaeological study on Fueguian mammalian archaeofaunas suggest that there were no important constraints on the conditions under which guanacos and pinnipeds were acquired and processed by hunter-gatherers in the Late Holocene. The analysis of the archaeofaunal record suggests that these activities took place by way of distinct forager strategies -considering the latitude - (sensu Binford 1980). This suggests in turn that the strong oceanic influence is of relevance to account for resource exploitation by Fueguian hunter-gatherers. Insularity has also played a role, given the inferred importance of marine resources and the lower levels of predator competition compared to mainland.

ref: Before Farming 2005/2 article 5

Late Holocene in southern Mendoza (northwestern Patagonia): radiocarbon pattern and human occupation

Gustavo Neme
CONICET- Departamento de Antropología, Museo de Historia Natural de San Rafael (Mza), Parque Mariano Moreno, (5600), San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina
ananeme@infovia.com.ar

Adolfo Gil
CONICET- Departamento de Antropología, Museo de Historia Natural de San Rafael (Mza), Parque Mariano Moreno, (5600), San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina
afgil1@infovia.com.ar

Víctor Durán
CONICET- Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, CC: 345 (5500), Mendoza, Argentina
duranvic@logos.uncu.edu.ar

Keywords: South America, Patagonia, Late Holocene, colonisation, habitat use

Abstract

This paper explores how hunter-gatherers occupied Northern Patagonia during the last 4000 years. This topic is analysed by putting radiocarbon trends in correlation with ecological differences between southern Mendoza areas and palaeoenvironmental context. The region is basically arid-semiarid, with a significant environmental diversity. We propose that the heterogeneity in the human biogeography of Northern Patagonia is related to its ecological characteristics, for instance, areas such as piedmont and intermountain valley have significant differences, in terms of resource productivity, compared with extra-cordillerean valleys, La Payunia and the high Cordillera. These environmental differences have influenced human occupation, exploration time, colonisation and stabilisation. This pattern could be explained as a response to differential resource structure between areas in this region. At c 2000 years BP all southern Mendoza has evidence of human use, but with differences in biogeographical phase (sensu Borrero 1989).