IANIGLA   20881
INSTITUTO ARGENTINO DE NIVOLOGIA, GLACIOLOGIA Y CIENCIAS AMBIENTALES
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
The use of the faunal resources among the high altitude hunter gatherers of southern Mendoza
Autor/es:
ADOLFO F. GIL; CLARA OTAOLA; GUSTAVO A. NEME; MIGUEL A. GIARDINA
Lugar:
Tucson
Reunión:
Congreso; The 39th Annual Conference of the Society of Ethnobiology; 2016
Institución organizadora:
Society for Ethnobiology
Resumen:
During the last 20 years research has been carried out to understand human use of environments located above 3000 masl in the Andean cordillera in southern Mendoza. The archaeological record at high elevation is distinctive from that in lower elevation environments, even in compared to the record from the eastern and western escarpment of the Andes mountain range. These characteristics include the presence of open air habitation structures, high frequency of pottery, strong presence of non-local goods, late radiocarbon chronology and occupation, as well as dependence on big game.Site function, settlement distribution, and occupation duration in such locations is still under study among researchers from Chile and Argentina. In this presentation we use Optimal Foraging concepts to evaluate alternative hypothesis that allow us to discuss previous models of human ecology. To reach this objective we use archaeofaunal record from four archaeological sites, Los Peuquenes, El Indígeno, Laguna del Diamante and Risco de los Indios, all located in the high Andes of south America, near the headwaters of Diamante and Atuel rivers, a ca. 34⁰ SL. These camps were occupied seasonally during summer as part of a n extensive, mobile settlement system that included camps located at lower elevations. Finally, the archaeofaunal record suggests that high elevation camps were used as base camps and probably with larger stays than was initially expected.