Reviewing human environment interactions in arid regions of southern South America during the past 3000

MARCELO MORALES; RAMIRO BARBERENA; JUAN BELARDI; LUIS BORRERO; VALERIA CORTEGOSO; VICTOR DURÁN; ALEJANDRA GUERCI; RAFAEL GOÑI; ADOLFO GIL; GUSTAVO NEME; HUGO YACOBACIO; MARCELO ZÁRATE

Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology

Elsevier

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2008

Interactions between human societies and the environment that they inhabit have been a controversial topic in archaeology for, at least, the past fifty years. Currently, modern theoretical approaches take this subject as a key issue in their research agenda. This paper presents a review of the main outcomes of several archaeological and multidisciplinary South American projects related to this theme. The case-studies discussed here are all located on arid settings, and can be grouped in three broad geographic areas: Puna (or Altiplano) of Northwestern Argentina, Cuyo (West-Central Argentina), and Southern Patagonia. These regions share an arid environment and comprise a wide latitudinal range extending from 22° to 52° S. They were selected for comparison due to environmental similarities, and a common record of past climate impacts mainly related to the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (MCA) and the Little Ice Age (LIA). Although the impacts of these climatic changes were locally heterogeneous in their intensity, and the quality of the available information is regionally variable, they provide a base-line for comparison and supra-regional integration.   The integration of archaeological and paleoenvironmental data on this broad supra-regional spatial scale allows us to identify interesting historical trajectories associated with particular time periods. As an example, there are some large populations’ spatial rearrangements during MCA times in the three areas. Besides, there are also variable patterns of changes associated with the different social contexts that impose specific demographic and economic constraints. Finally, this study sets the basis for new questions and provides a guide on the methodological and theoretical issues that we need to address in order to answer them.