Human Colonization, Diet Breadth and Niche Construction during Sierras of Córdoba Holocene (Argentina)

D. RIVERO; M. MEDINA

Darwin's Legacy: The State of Evolutionary Archaeology in Argentina

Archaeopress, Publisher of British Archaeological Reports

Lugar: Oxford; Año: 2016; p. 67 - 81

This chapter focuses on how human colonization of Sierras of Cordoba (Argentina) impact on the high-ranked prey resource density ?i.e. Lama guanicoe-. Three hypothetical scenarios were modelled altering the encounter rate of L. guanicoe and predicting how its variation should broaden or narrow the optimal diet of human societies. Diachronic trends in the Lama sp. encounter rate were analyzed with two quantitative indeces that compare its relative abundance in the assemblages: the ?camelid index? and the ?artiodactyls index?. The archaeofaunal record reflects the temporal decrease in Lama sp. frequency through the Holocene. This taxonomical trend is associated to a decrease in their encounter rate as a result of human over-explotation under specific ecological conditions. The results draw to the conclusion that a broad-spectrum diet which may not be an exclusively Late Holocene phenomenon and its origins may be found in earlier processes beginning during the Middle Holocene. Thus, the incorporation of small-scale agriculture around ca. 1200-1000 BP cannot be satisfactorily explained only by external factors such as climate changes, the diffusion and/or arrival of new biological populations. Research should consider that past human cultural activities played a dynamic role in this process through niche construction, co-directing subsequent cultural changes that are seen in the archaeological record.