New perspectives in archaeological research of marginal deserts in South Americav

C. MÉNDEZ; A. NUEVO DELAUNAY; R. BARBERENA

Futuro sostenible de la vida en el desierto

UNESCO, Gobierno de Coahuila

Lugar: Mexico DF; Año: 2017; p. 89 - 113

New archaeological studies on South American deserts have produced a fresh perspective on the characteristics and antiquity of the first human presence in these habitats, the continuity of populations over millennia of occupations facing varying degrees of aridity and the possibilities of learning lessons from recent ways of dwelling in deserts. These three topics represent innovative ways in which a new array of research projects have recently managed to assess old and new questions by yielding novel standpoints on previously understudied regions, especially, but not exclusively, in the southern deserts. Focusing research in such areas brings out a multifaceted perspective formerly unseen because prior efforts were concentrated on nuclear regions where much more evident and spectacular findings are common. Core desert regions such as the coast of the central Andes in Peru or the Atacama in northern Chile and north-western Argentina gave way to long sequences of human occupation leading to the development of social complexity, technological innovation, intensification, rapid demographic and urban growth, and intricate religious practices. The immense wealth ofthe archaeological record preserved under remarkably arid conditions provided the empirical grounds for some original and revolutionary theories on the emergence of civilization based on extractive maritime economies or on the articulated use of diverse altitudinal Andean settings. This paper takes a different perspective. It highlights archaeological research on desert zones that can be labeled as marginal.