INVESTIGADORES
DANTAS Mariana
artículos
Título:
Llamas in the Cornfield: Prehispanic Agro-Pastoral System in the Southern Andes
Autor/es:
DANTAS, MARIANA; FIGUEROA, GERMÁN G.; LAGUENS, ANDRÉS
Revista:
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
Editorial:
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Referencias:
Año: 2014 p. 149 - 165
ISSN:
1099-1212
Resumen:
We report a study of the
organization of camelid production at the Ambato Valley, northern Argentine Andes,
between the 6th and 11th centuries AD. We aim to contribute
to the understanding of the different modes of economic production adopted in
the past within non-egalitarian social contexts.
In view
of this, information collected from previous studies is analyzed from multiple perspectives, centering on the application of different analytical techniques to the assemblage of camelid bones (anatomical and taxonomicalidentification, osteometry and stable isotopes), to their diverse
archaeological contexts, and architectural and agricultural units, together with the implementationof frames of reference and ethnoarchaeological models. The results support the presence of
an organizational mode for the production of plants and animals on basis of a
combination of different agrarian and livestock productive strategies under a
unique new integrated agro-pastoral practice, differing from both previous
ones. This new practice combined, in the very same land, the use of pens and
agriculture terraces in an annual productive cycle adjusted to the seasonal
calendar, where maize production was used as stubble for llamas during the dry
season, at the same time those fertilized corn fields during fallow.
Although this new practice suggests an
intensification in production, the bond and synergy of animal and plant
productive strategies in a single practice could be considered risky since it decreases
the range of possible responses to external fluctuation, to the extent that
these could have influenced simultaneous or indirectly on both resources. This
might have implied an extra factor contributing to the destructuration of the
Ambato societies around 1000 AD.