Native American population history is reexamined using a large data set of pre-Columbian mitochondrial genomes.

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Se sintetizan los procesos socioculturales y productivos de las ocupaciones arcaicas costeñas y andinas de la circumpuna y valles occidentales, área Centro Sur Andina, poniendo énfasis en los eventos arcaicos tardíos, las evidencias de interacción y el desarrollo de respuestas de alta complejidad que habrían marcado el tránsito hacia la neolitización formativa. El rol de las sociedades locales y sus diferentes modalidades de vida vinculadas con los cambios formativos tempranos entre los 3.500 a 2.400 años a.p. se revisan en los siguientes modelos: (a) marítimo desértico circumpuneño distribuido entre Taltal y el Loa; (b) cazador-hortícola-pastoralista circumpuneño identificado entre las cuencas del Loa y Atacama; (c) marítimo-agroforestal localizado en los valles occidentales interiores entre los ríos Loa y Camiña (zona de Tarapacá); y (d) agromarítimo de valles occidentales costeños emplazados entre los ríos Camarones y Lluta. Las fases del Formativo Temprano correspondientes a: Tilocalar, Caserones y Azapa se valoran de acuerdo a los logros arcaicos previos y las decisivas interacciones con la costa desértica y fértil del norte de Chile.Palabras claves: Desierto de Atacama, cazadores-recolectores, Arcaico, pastoralismo, horticultores, Formativo Temprano, interacción social. Se ha planteado que el proceso de neolitización vinculado con el surgimiento de los logros civilizatorios se ha involucrado con cambios agrarios y ganaderos, siguiendo el modelo europeo, asociado a prácticas sedentarias (Craig 2011;Lumbreras 2006;Lavallée 2006;Lynch 1973Lynch , 1983 Muñoz 1989 Muñoz , 2004 Núñez 1989;Rivera 1994;Romero et al. 2004). Sin embargo, en las últimas décadas han surgido explicaciones alternativas orientadas a valorar a las sociedades cazadoras-recolectoras complejas, capaces de crear condiciones favorables para promover transformaciones estructurales This article synthesizes the sociocultural and economy processes of archaic coastal and Andean societies that occupied the circumpuna and the Western Valleys regions, within the South Central Andes. We emphases on the late archaic events, the evidence of inter regional interaction, and the development of high complex responses that would have marked the transition toward formative

The emergence of complex cultural practices in simple huntergatherer groups poses interesting questions on what drives social complexity and what causes the emergence and disappearance of cultural innovations. Here we analyze the conditions that underlie the emergence of artificial mummification in the Chinchorro culture in the coastal Atacama Desert in northern Chile and southern Peru. We provide empirical and theoretical evidence that artificial mummification appeared during a period of increased coastal freshwater availability and marine productivity, which caused an increase in human population size and accelerated the emergence of cultural innovations, as predicted by recent models of cultural and technological evolution. Under a scenario of increasing population size and extreme aridity (with little or no decomposition of corpses) a simple demographic model shows that dead individuals may have become a significant part of the landscape, creating the conditions for the manipulation of the dead that led to the emergence of complex mortuary practices.climate variability | coastal desert | cultural evolution

Summary There are many unanswered questions about the population history of the Central and South Central Andes, particularly regarding the impact of large-scale societies, such as the Moche, Wari, Tiwanaku, and Inca. We assembled genome-wide data on 89 individuals dating from ∼9,000-500 years ago (BP), with a particular focus on the period of the rise and fall of state societies. Today’s genetic structure began to develop by 5,800 BP, followed by bi-directional gene flow between the North and South Highlands, and between the Highlands and Coast. We detect minimal admixture among neighboring groups between ∼2,000–500 BP, although we do detect cosmopolitanism (people of diverse ancestries living side-by-side) in the heartlands of the Tiwanaku and Inca polities. We also highlight cases of long-range mobility connecting the Andes to Argentina and the Northwest Andes to the Amazon Basin. Video Abstract