First Records of Prehispanic dogs in Souther Southamerica (Pampa-Patagonia, Argentina)

PRATES, L.; PREVOSTI, F.; BERÓN, M,

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY

University Chicago press

Lugar: Chicago; Año: 2010 vol. 51 p. 273 - 280

0011-3204

The first solid evidence for prehispanic dogs in Southern South America (from Patagonia and the Pampas, Argentina) is presented in this paper. Although several canine remains previously found in Pampas-Patagonia were attributed at first place to dogs, they were subsequently redetermined as extinct foxes and/or discarded for lack of clear diagnostic features or for presenting unreliable chronological information. The Patagonian remains presented here consist of dental fragments found at Angostura 1 site, a campsite located near Negro river. The Pampean evidence is composed of a complete skeleton found at a cemetery (Chenque 1 site) located in the Lihue Calel National Park. Both sites date ca. 930 years BP and are interpreted as occupied by hunter-gatherer societies. Unlike in North America, the presence of prehispanic dogs in South America has always been associated with complex societies (mainly in Peru and Ecuador) and not with egalitarian hunter-gatherers. This paper proposes that the spread of dogs in South America occurred mainly among Andean complex societies (especially from 3,500 years BP). Introduction of dogs into egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies from the Southern Cone would have occurred later, around 1,500 years BP, when these societies appear to have increased long distance social contacts.