Initial human dispersal: Comparison of two South American cases

LANATA JOSÉ LUIS; CHICHKOYAN KARINA VANESA

Congreso; Préhistoire sous les Tropiques. Peuplements, adaptations, comportements en milieu tropical et subtropical sur le temps long; 2021

Muséum national d?histoire naturelle

During human dispersal in new environments, the evolutionary combination between cultural practices and the ecosystems characteristics played a fundamental role in the species new niche construction and its new development. The Americas seem to have been a continent where the human dispersal process, which occurred since the late Pleistocene, was faster than on other continents, due to the previous absence of other Homo spp. to H. sapiens. This gives us an analytical advantage to understand the dynamics of human dispersion in a broad sense, as well as its particularities in tempo, mode and variation. We present a brief comparison of the initial dispersal processes in two different South American ecosystems during the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene; Amazonia and Pampa-Patagonia. We discuss the different process of niche construction in each of these large ecosystems and explore environmental and anthropic drivers influencing the archaeological record of this period.