CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Regional cases have a key role in the exploration of general patterns at different scales. They sacrifice scope, but provide high resolution that contributes to understand the source of regularities as well as anomalies. In this thread, we present a case from Patagonia, which is intended in assessing the role of fishing in coastal deserts. There is room for comparative assessments based on similar cases from the southern deserts. The Atlantic coast of continental Patagonia extends from the Colorado River mouth, south of Buenos Aires province, to the northern shore of the Magellan?s Strait, covering more than 1400 km. Despite local variations, the area is characterized by a homogeneous environment at a structural (geology and geomorphology) climate and ecological level. In this work we evaluated, the observed differences in the exploitation of marine fishes byhunter-gatherers who occupied this macro regionsince the mid-Holocene. Interestingly,the archaeological research conducted inthis huge coastline showed scarce and fragmentaryuse of fish by hunter-gatherers. However, there is at least one exception to this pattern: on the north coast ofSan Matías Gulffishes were intensely and systematically used from middle to late Holocene. Our main interest is to delineate the factors that would have influenced the adoption of fishing as a livelihood system and its relationship with other resource groups, both inland and marine, which were available in this macro arid region, butvaried according to local or regional factors. The basic question that guides this study is why being fishes an abundant and varied resource, which is also relatively easy to obtain, they were practically unexploited in most of the Patagonian coast and were onlyintensely consumed in a particular sector of this extensive coastline? Answers to this question can be many and the aim of this paper is to problematize and discuss the role of fishing as a livelihood strategy in arid coastal environments. Finally, we consider environmental variables (availability of inland and marine resources, bio-productivity, latitude, coastal types) and cultural/social (technological requirements, decision making).