Metrical variability in ethnographic arrows from southernmost Patagonia: comparing collections from Tierra del Fuego at European museums

J. CHARLIN, C. AUGUSTAT AND C. UBAN

journal of anthropological archaeology

ELSEVIER

Año: 2016 vol. 41 p. 313 - 326

0278-4165

Tierra del Fuegoindigenous peoples (southernmost Argentinean andChilean Patagonia) have been frequently accounted for since the 16thcentury; their weapons, however, were hardly described.Thus, this article aims to evaluate arrow technology variability in late 19th-early 20th century hunter-gatherer?s ethnographic samplesfrom Tierra del Fuego. This proposal rests on previous archaeological studies whichsuggested a pattern of north-south morphometric variation in projectile pointsfor the last 3000 years, which follows a distribution that resembles theindigenous territories at historical times. However, amore limited chronological scale is needed to identify time-specific variations.68 ethnographic arrows were thussurveyed at the Weltmuseum Wien (Austria), the Ethnologisches Museum (Germany)and the Musée du quai Branly (France) to test the existence of differences atthe time. By means of multivariate statistics, the metrical comparison of thewhole arrows, as well as the individual points and shafts, from land- andsea-resources specialized hunter-gatherers(Selk?nam/Yámana and Alacaluf, respectively) have revealed size differences. While Selk?nam arrows present longerand wider shafts, with smaller fletching and points, Alacaluf and Yámana arrowsshow the opposite trend. Results show that morphometric variationspreviously detected on archaeological projectilepoints are also present in the time-specific ethnographic arrows analyzedhere, at least regarding size.