NEW APPROACHES TO PAST MIGRATIONS IN SOUTH AMERICAN LOWLANDS: MODELING TUPI LARGE-SCALE FLUVIAL MOVEMENTS THROUGH HYDROLOGICAL NETWORK ANALYSIS

BONOMO, MARIANO; APOLINAIRE, EDUARDO; ALVES CORREA, A.; COSTA ANGRIZANI, RODRIGO; NOELLI; FRANCISCO

Prague

Congreso; 9th World Archaeological Congress; 2022

World Archaeological Congress

Mobility is one of the characteristics that have accompanied the human species since its origins. Throughout this deep history, migration, expansions, and diasporas have varied in magnitude and motivations. The wide geographic dispersion of human societies linked to the Tupi linguistic stock has been a subject studied by various disciplines (linguistics, anthropology, history, and archaeology) that have inferred the existence of a long history of population movements.Since the 1960s, this has led to the proposal of different explanatory models about the Tupi dispersal pathways predominantly based on linguistic data. Here, using a database composed from more than 500 absolute and relative dates, we evaluate temporal and spatial distribution of Tupi-related archaeological sites through a mobility model developed with fluvial network analysis. The model was based on the layout of the river courses belonging to Amazon and La Plata basins together with watercourses of the Atlantic slope, and their characterization as a mobility network.We evaluate the timing of the expansion, the plausible pathways used and the distances reached. This model outputs are therefore used to address issues related to human large-scale movements. Finally, we review these results in the light of the paleoenvironmental information available for the Holocene of South America and evaluate the influence of ecological phenomena on social dynamics. We also explore some aspects related to demography, alliances and conflicts generated throughout this process of expansion.