Microscopic use-wear analysis in Latin America. Its contribution to new problems, raw materials and taphonomic contexts.

MANSUR M. E.; ALONSO LIMA M.; DE ANGELIS H.

Florianopolis

Congreso; XVI International Congress - International Union for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences. UISPP. XVI Congresso da SAB.; 2011

SAB

Since the publication of S. Semenov’s Prehistoric Technology in Europe in 1964, microscopic analysis of archaeological materials has developed continuously, although it has followed an uneven rhythm -sometimes more rapid and sometimes slower-. Nowadays it has become “a must” in most of the archaeological investigations developed in Europe. This type of study receives different names, sometimes used indistinctively, such as functional analysis, traceology, micro-wear analysis, etc. Anyhow, it is basically focused towards the functional interpretation of artifacts and their correlates in the socio-economical analysis of past societies. In Latin America, microscopic analysis started at about the same time -and developed in a parallel way- as in Europe and North America. Nevertheless it had its own course to follow, as it tried to solve different methodological problems, mainly concerning raw materials used, depositional contexts, etc. But besides methodology, it was also singular because of its theoretical-methodological approach in relation with the type of ethnographic and archaeological problems investigated. Different reasons led it to be little known, not only in the Old World but also in North America. Our objective in this communication is to present a preliminary synthesis of the principal investigations and lines of research developed, as well as their contribution to micro wear analysis as a whole