Oxford Handbook of the Anthropology and Archaeology of Hunter Gatherers

POLITIS, GUSTAVO; HERNANDO GONZALO, ALMUDENA

South America hunter-gatherers

Oxford University Press

Lugar: Oxford; Año: 2010;

South America is a fascinating region not only for the study of modern hunter-gatherers, but also for theoretical reflection on the evolutionary scheme that anthropology and archaeology have used to define them. As the Selk´nam and Yámana of Tierra del Fuego, considered to be ‗archetypically‘ ‗primitive‘ hunter-gatherers , were almost virtually extinct by the 1930s, research attention has been focused on groups living in the tropical lowlands (). Since the beginning of the XVI Century, when Europeans started to colonized the continent, the life of the South American hunter-gatherers suffered deep changes, which ultimately derived to most of them to extinctions. However, this way of life still survives in the tropical lowlands, showing it strength and vitality. .