Variación Craneofacial de los Primeros Habitantes de las Pampas Argentinas: Implicancias para el Poblamiento de América

MENÉNDEZ, L.; BONOMO, M.; MESSINEO, P., M. GONZALEZ, G. POLITIS; PEREZ, I.

De Cómo Cruzar Fronteras en la Ciencia. Homenaje a Héctor M. Pucciarelli

Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas, Conicet

Lugar: Puerto Madryn; Año: 2017; p. 87 - 109

Morphological comparisons between the earliest and latest human skeletons of America have suggested the existence of a complex scenario underlying the biological diversification of American populations. At the end of 19th and the early 20th centuries Florentino Ameghino initiated the discussions on the high antiquity of humans in the vast grasslands of Argentinean Pampas. However, only recently the importance of Argentinean Pampas samples had been reviewed to discuss the diversification of American populations due to recent radiocarbon dates obtained on nine samples of human bone studied by Ameghino and other Argentinean researchers. Morphometric analyzes concerning those nine Early Holocene human remains of Argentinean Pampas are presented together with other early samples coming from Chile, Brazil, and Colombia. All early samples were compared with Late Holocene samples by region. Results showed that differences between early and late samples vary according to the region considered. While there is not a clear separation between Chilean earliest and late samples, differences in Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina are more pronounced. Argentinean Pampas samples present the greatest morphological variation when plot with the other Early American samples. However, using cranial morphometric differences alone is difficult to support the hypotheses that the morphological differences between Early and Late American samples are related to migration, drift, natural selection or others processes. Although craneometric evidence was very important to understand the human peopling and diversification in America, new work need to consider more evidence (e.g. archaeological, molecular, among others) all together.