Was There a Process of Regionalization in Northeastern Patagonia During the Late Holocene?

MARTÍNEZ GUSTAVO; SANTOS VALERO, FLORENCIA; FLENSBORG, GUSTAVO; CARDEN NATALIA; STOESSEL, LUCIANA; ALCARAZ, ANA; BORGES VAZ, ERICA

Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology

Taylor & Francis Inc

Lugar: Philadelphia; Año: 2017 vol. 12 p. 95 - 114

The objective of this article is to evaluate if changes in the social organization of hunter-gatherer groups from northeastern Patagonia (Argentina)during the Final Late Holocene (ca. 1000?250 years BP) maybe understood as a regionalization process. A portion of this region,the lower course of the Colorado River, is taken as a case study. Thisarid/semi-arid area is part of an ecotone between the Pampas and northeastern Patagonia situated beside the Atlantic coast. Most of theevidence for occupation is concentrated in the Late Holocene, more precisely from 1000 to 250 BP. The archaeological record of this periodindicates increased human population, along with a greater intensityof site occupation, the first systematic evidence of coastal occupation, reduced mobility and territoriality, diversification and intensification of subsistence practices, changes in the procurement and use of exotic raw materials, more complex funerary practices, and decreased circulationof specific images in portable artifacts. Based on these data, it is proposed that in some sectors of northeastern Patagonia during the Initial Late Holocene (3000?1000 BP) relatively open social networks operated,while for the Final Late Holocene (1000?250 BP) relatively closed social networks took their place within a framework of increasing regionalization. Factors relating to the latter are likely to have included demographic packing, spatial circumscription, territorial behaviors, and changes in population dynamics that were accompanied by social differentiation and more intense and competitive social interaction networks.