Encountering Contemporary Pastoralism via Zooarchaeology: New Data from the Argentine Andes

GUSTAVO NEME; WOLVERTON STEVE; GIARDINA MIGUEL; ADOLFO F. GIL; CLARA OTAOLA

Montreal

Conferencia; The 40 th Annual Conference of the Society of Ethnobiology; 2017

Society of Ethnobiolog

Puesteros are pastoralists who live in many parts of the Andes. Many puesteros practice seasonal transhumance, and others are sedentary. All puesteros are smallholder herders who raise goats, sheep, cattle, and horses. Like many pastoralists, puesteros are confronting rapid cultural and environmentalchange. We examine zooarchaeological data from puestos to study geographic variability in subsistence, with a particular emphasis on animal resource use. Our study focuses on puesteros who live in western, southern Mendoza Province, Argentina who live within the Rio Atuel and Rio Diamante valleys. In terms of political ecology, our study highlights the diversity and novelty of constraints faced by puesteros during a period of rapid social and environmental change.