Demographic Basis of Archaeological Gapsand Troughs in South American Deserts: A Comparative Exploration.

BARBERENA, R.; C. MÉNDEZ; L. PRATES

Mendoza

Simposio; 4th Southern Deserts Conference.; 2014

Universidad Nacional de Cuyo

The behavioral, demographic, and evolutionary meaning of temporal discontinuities in radiocarbon age distributions is a complex and fascinating issue. The existence and causes of mid-Holocene (~8000-6000 years BP) archaeological troughs in South America have been the focus of intense debate over the last decades. Several researchers have alternatively suggested that enhanced arid conditions and/or volcanic events would have produced an impact on hunter-gatherer societies inhabiting desert and semi-desert settings. The primary human response to landscape and resource fragmentation would be spatial rearrangements at regional scales, though the capacity of these spatial mechanisms to overcome arid conditions and resource diminishment should have been limited. The key issue is the extent of landscape fragmentation, or the amount of space that takes the character of barriers to human mobility and installation. In this paper we present a preliminary synthesis of the record from regions adjacent to the Andes mountain range between 23º and 40º south. This record includes the highland and lowland deserts of Mendoza and San Juan, the Puna region from northwestern Argentina, the Atacama Desert in Chile and the possible case of the Pampas. Based on previous suggestions from different researchers in Chile and Argentina, it is suggested that parts of the Andean highlands, the western Patagonian mesic steppes in Neuquén, and the Taguatagua lake region in Central Chile could have functioned as refugia. Competition, technological innovation or adoption, and new modes of subsistence could have arisen in the context of the new set of conditions posed by this process.