Histories of mobility, diasporas and ethnogenesis in central Argentina.

BERON MONICA; PAEZ, FLORENCIA

Praga

Congreso; World Archeological Congress IX; 2022

Czech Academy of Sciences

The central territory of the Argentine Republic, between 36 and 40ºLS constituted a corridor of mobility, interaction and strong social dynamics from pre-Hispanic moments to the present. In pre-Hispanic times the material culture and bioarchaeological evidence from Pampa and Norpatagonia áreas show that the hunter-gatherer societies that inhabited the central territory of Argentina during the late Holocene integrated a macro-regional mobility circuit, which covered from the Atlantic coast to the western slope of the Andes mountain range, reaching the Pacific coast and insular spaces, at that latitud range. For historical moments, the documentary sources reflect an incessant interaction between the populations that transited the current territories of Argentina and Chile, evidencing an emphasis on mobility and migration processes throughout this wide territory, with different purposes. However, these networks began to change and weaken from the nineteenth century, within the framework of territorial occupation actions during the formation of the Argentine and Chilean Nation States. The indigenous populations of Araucanía and the Pampas were pushed from their territories. Once the military campaigns were over, many indigenous peoples suffered true diasporas, losing their cultural patterns and cornering in mountain and mesetary spaces. In the twentieth century ethnogenesis and ethnic re-emergence processes began. In this context, one of the tools used to validate its pre-existence and its claims are the data obtained from the archaeological record and the interpretation of its ancient ways of life in ancestral territories.