FIRST RECORDS OF PREHISPANIC DOGS IN SOUTHERN SOUTH AMERICA (PAMPA-PATAGONIA, ARGENTINA).

PRATES, L., PREVOSTI, F. J. Y BERÓN, M.

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY

The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research

Año: 2010 p. 273 - 280

0011-3204

We present the first solid evidence for prehispanic dogs insouthern South America (from Patagonia and the Pampas,Argentina). Although several canine remains previously foundin Pampa-Patagonia were attributed at first to dogs, they weresubsequently determined to have been extinct foxes and/ordiscarded for lack of clear diagnostic features or for unreliablechronological information. The Patagonian remains presentedhere consist of dental fragments found at the Angostura 1site, a campsite located near the Negro River. The Pampeanevidence consists of a complete skeleton found at a cemetery(the Chenque 1 site) located in the Lihue Calel National Park.Both sites date to ca. 930 BP and are interpreted as havingbeen occupied by hunter-gatherer societies. Unlike in NorthAmerica, the presence of prehispanic dogs in South Americahas always been associated with complex societies (mainly inPeru and Ecuador) and not with egalitarian hunter-gatherers.This paper proposes that the spread of dogs in South Americaoccurred mainly among Andean complex societies (especiallyfrom 3500 BP). Introduction of dogs into egalitarian huntergatherersocieties in the Southern Cone would have occurredlater, around 1000 BP, when these societies appear to haveincreased long-distance social contacts.