The economic role played by wild and domestic Camelids in village societies of Northwestern Argentina.

GRANT, JENNIFER; OLIVERA, DANIEL

Paris

Conferencia; 11th ICAZ International Conference.; 2010

11th ICAZ International Conference, Muséum National D? Histoire Naturelle, Paris.

As the only large herd mammals that where domesticated in all the Americas, South American camelids have occupied a central role in the economic, social and ritual life of ancient hunter-gathers, herders and also farmers from the Andean region. Within productive economies it becomes crucial to analyze the incidence of wild vs domestic camelids in faunal assemblages. This is so because the predominance of certain strategies of resource acquisition or the presence-absence of some of them brings about differences in the logistical organization of the groups. One problem still poorly explored is the question of differences in the management of camelid species by societies of the highlands (Puna) with respect to the ones from the mesothermal valleys. Usually it is accepted that in the economy of the latter, agriculture had a major impact, but it is evident that herding and hunting also played a role still unclearFor that reason, and with the purpose of understanding past relations between humans and camelids, the aim of this work is to compare use tendencies of these animals in sedentary villages situated at different ecological zones of Northwestern Argentina dating from Formative period onwards. This objective will be achieved trough the evaluation of different zooarchaeological indicators such as: size variation observed in camelids (osteometry), their assignment to age categories and different indices of skeletal element abundance.