Geographical organization of southern Patagonian hunter-gatherers (southern South America)

J. CHARLIN; R. BARBERENA

Vancouver, Canada

Congreso; 73rd Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology; 2008

Society for American Archaeology

Hunter-gatherer spatial arrangement is a complex phenomenon conformed by several social and spatial dimensions of interaction. We analize the spatial organization of southern Patagonian societies (Argentina, South America). Firstly, we discuss data on the carrying capacity of terrestrial and marine environments, and on the availability of lithic raw materials, providing a basis for archaeological interpretation. Secondly, we integrate isotopic information on human remains and distributional data on lithic artefacts and items of marine procedence. Finally, we evaluate the amplitude of hunter-gatherer home ranges and the existence of a spatial hierarchy in terms of their importance for humans during the Late Holocene.