Stories of mobility, diasporas and ethnogenesis in central Argentina

BERÓN, MÓNICA ALEJANDRA; PAEZ, FLORENCIA NATALIN

Praga

Congreso; 9th World Archaeological Congress (WAC-9); 2022

The central territory of the Argentine, between 36 to 40 degrees south latitude, has been a corridor of mobility, interaction, and strong social dynamics from pre-Hispanic times to the present. In pre-Hispanic times, the material culture and bioarchaeological evidence from La Pampa and Northern Patagonia indicate that the hunter-gatherer societies inhabiting central Argentina during the late Holocene were part of a macro-regional mobility circuit. This circuit extended from the Atlantic coast of Buenos Aires to the western slope of the Andes mountain range, reaching the Pacific coast and insular areas thereof.For historical periods, documentary sources reflect a constant interaction between populations moving across the current territories of Argentina and Chile, highlighting an emphasis on processes of mobility and migration across this vast territory. However, these networks began to change and weaken from the 19th century, in the context of territorial occupation actions during the formation of the Argentine and Chilean nation-states. The indigenous populations of the Araucanía and the Pampas were pushed from their lands. Once the military campaigns concluded, many indigenous peoples suffered real diasporas, losing their cultural patterns and being cornered into mountainous and plateau areas.In the 20th century, processes of ethnogenesis and ethnic re-emergence began. In this context, one of the tools used to validate their pre-existence and their claims are the data that come from the archaeological record and the interpretation of their ancient ways of life in the ancestral territories.