The texture of Andean migration: A life-history approach

RAMIRO BARBERENA; LE ROUX, PETRUS; AUGUSTO TESSONE; GUSTAVO LUCERO; DANIELA GUEVARA; NOVELLINO, PAULA; M. FERNANDA QUINTANA; JULIE LUYT; JUDITH SEALY

Taller; IV Taller de Arqueología e Isótopos Estables en el Sur de Sudamérica; 2023

Migrations are an intrinsic aspect of human societies in the present as in the past, occurringacross levels of sociopolitical complexity from small-scale mobile societies to ancient states.However, they are still largely neglected as a significant process in the archaeology of smallscalesouthern Andean societies (30-34º S). We build on previous research on migrantfarmers recorded between 1270-1420 years AD (Late Intermediate Period) at the UspallataValley (Mendoza, Argentina), shortly preceding the Inka conquest. Here we present newmulti-isotope results integrating strontium, carbon, and nitrogen, and develop a bottom-upapproach to human life-histories linking the micro-scale of the individual with the levels ofgroups or communities. By combining our strontium isoscape to identify locals and migrants,a study of the metric of their isotopic niches of locals and migrants, and a Bayesian analysisof radiocarbon dates to assess the timing and pattern of migrations, we characterize theinternal variation in the life-histories of the migrant groups. Our results are framed on a largerinterdisciplinary study that combines the demographic analysis of the sites with migrants andlocals, scale of mobility and place of origin, cultural practices of cranial modification, andbiological lineages as revealed by morphometric studies and nuclear paleogenomics. Thisresearch contributes to the endeavour of understanding the development of highly diversifiedhuman socioecological niches during the last 2000 years, and how migration contributedalong the way.