Late Holocene demographic trajectories and human subsistence change: Exploring patterns in the Subtropical Andes

GIL, A.; NEME, G.; PERALTA, EVA A.; LOPEZ, M. ; FREEMAN, J.

Dublin

Congreso; INQUA; 2019

INQUA

Historical records from the Subtropical Andes reveal a surprising mosaic of human subsistence strategies, ranging from intensive reliance on domestic plants and animals to a sole reliance on wild resources. This presentation focuses on this diversity in Central West Argentina by developing summed probability distributions of radiocarbon data for different regions in order to reconstruct and compare Late Holocene demographic trajectories. We compare the northern area, where historic farmers lived, southern area, where historic hunter-gatherer lived, and central area, a transitional boundary area with mix of framing and hunter gatherer were living on historic time. When SPD is compared between areas, we found significant increase in ca. 750 to 1100 AD in north, that is associated with significant decrease in south area but not change in central area. Other significant increase was recorded in south area, associated with a significant decrease in central area, ca. 400 to 700 BC. The highest 13C value were recorded during the demographic pick (750 to 1100) in north and central but not in south area. There stronger variation between individuals in North and Center than South. Increase in 13C is associated with decrease in variation in North but with increase of variation in central area. The high standard deviations in areas with maize consumption suggest that individuals had more diverse subsistence adaptations and not one strategies is more adaptive than other in the long term. This trend plus the abrupt drop in 13C quickly after this reach the highest values (highest maize consumption) indicate the full time farming vulnerability to abrupt environmental and climatic variation. This strategy could reflex the adaptability of flexibly and reverse system under highly variable environment condition as CWA.