Advances in the archaeology of the Pampa and Patagonia |
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Authors: | Luis Abel Orquera |
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Institution: | (1) Asociación de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Rondeau 2942—6 C , 1262 Buenos Aires, Argentina |
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Abstract: | Archaeological data reveal two distinctive cultural adaptations on the Pampa and Patagonia of Argentina: terrestrial hunter-gatherers in the former and most of the latter region and maritime hunter-gatherers along the southern extreme. Both adaptations were achieved by the end of the fifth millennium B.C. Thereafter, a stable equilibrium was maintained, with a slow drift toward greater emphasis on resources providing the maximum return for the least effort. The high productivity of the Fuegian environment sustained a population 30 times greater than occupied the Pampa and continental Patagonia prior to Araucanian penetration in the sixteenth century A.D. The long-term stability is attributable to the absence of environmental or demographic pressures or encroachments by neighboring groups, which might have made more intensive exploitation of the environment necessary. |
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Keywords: | Pampa-Patagonia prehistory lithic traditions Pleistocene megafauna rock art adaptation |
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