Assessing indigenous technology and land-use patterns between pre- and equestrian times in southern Patagonia (southern South America)

CIRIGLIANO, NATALIA; PALLO, MARIA CECILIA

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

Elsevier

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2019 vol. 24 p. 50 - 57

2352-409X

One of the most profound effects of the European expansion across America from the fifteenth to nineteenthcenturies was the introduction of the horse. This phenomenon left a wake of cultural and ecological changesamong native, foot-mobile hunter-gatherer groups. Historical and archaeological sources suggest that the spreadof equestrian adaptation to southern Patagonia (southern South America) drove the occupation of high qualitygrazing areas, the gradual abandonment of projectile points, and their replacement by lithic ?bolas? as theprimary hunting tool among indigenous people between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. Here, we assessthe archaeological distribution of projectile points and occupational events in southern Patagonia for the last500 years through non-parametric and spatial statistical analyses. Our results support the gradual transformationin native hunting technologies after they adopted the horse. However, equestrian occupations are located differentlyfrom previous times, although not mainly in high quality grazing areas. This may have resulted from theland-use patterns of hunter-gatherers on horseback and the expansion of European settlements that reduced theavailability of ?free? lands for indigenous use