Childhood in hunter-gatherer groups of Patagonia: a methodological approach for its analysis

GUICHON FERNANDEZ , ROCÍO; GURAIEB, SOLANA GARCÍA; MORLESIN MILENA; FLORENCIA BORELLA

La Plata

Conferencia; XX Annual Congress of the Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past (SSCIP); 2023

Facultad de Ciencias Medicas- Universidad Nacional de La Plata

This study presents a methodological approach for the analysis of the non-adult bioarchaeological record in archaeological contexts of hunter-gatherers in Patagonia (Argentina). Human bone assemblages from these populations are frequently found isolated and dispersed, covering large areas. In addition, there is a great diversity of mortuary practices, contexts of discovery, taphonomic trajectories and forms of recovery, resulting in bioarchaeological samples with different degrees of archaeological resolution. This variability, together with osteological changes during the process of growth and development, has a great differential impact on the visibility and anatomical representation of this age group in comparison with adults.In order to methodologically approach the non-adult bioarchaeological record of hunter-gatherers, we present a design that articulates: a) a corpus of tools for bone quantification and assessment of bone integrity at different biological ages, b) the adequacy of different scales and units of analysis according to the contexts of discovery, and c) the taphonomic processes and effects involved in the formation of the bioarchaeological record (intrinsic and extrinsic factors). This analytical proposal allows us to address the diversity of bone representation of non-adults in hunter-gatherer mortuary contexts and to generate our own archaeological expectations that incorporate infancy and childhood into the lines of archaeological research and interpretation.