Adventive Vertebrates and Historical Ecology in the Pre-Columbian Neotropics

Stahl, Peter W.

doi:10.3390/d1020151

Cited by 22 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 68 publications

(88 reference statements)

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“…That turnover in species, which can involve more or less invasive species, is often documented as resulting in a net loss of diversity, often on a large scale because of the dissemination of invasive species and their superior competitive attributes (e.g., [29]), but what we have learned from historical ecology is that primary landscape transformation can sometimes result in net increases in diversity [23]. In either case, regardless of the upward or downward trend in species abundance values, the anthropogenesis of Amazonian landscapes is increasingly documented not only in the living vegetation, but archaeologically in the form of extensive patterns of earthworks [15,16,19,[30][31][32][33][34][35].…”

Section: Primary Vs Secondary Landscape Transformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contingent Diversity on Anthropic Landscapes

Balée

2010

Diversity

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Behaviorally modern human beings have lived in Amazonia for thousands of years. Significant dynamics in species turnovers due to human-mediated disturbance were associated with the ultimate emergence and expansion of agrarian technologies in prehistory. Such disturbances initiated primary and secondary landscape transformations in various locales of the Amazon region. Diversity in these locales can be understood by accepting the initial premise of contingency, expressed as unprecedented human agency and human history. These effects can be accessed through the archaeological record and in the study of living languages. In addition, landscape transformation can be demonstrated in the study of traditional knowledge (TK). One way of elucidating TK distinctions between anthropic and nonanthropic landscapes concerns elicitation of differential labeling of these landscapes and more significantly, elicitation of the specific contents, such as trees, occurring in these landscapes. Freelisting is a method which can be used to distinguish the differential species compositions of landscapes resulting from human-mediated disturbance vs. those which do not evince records of human agency and history. The TK of the Ka'apor Indians of Amazonian Brazil as revealed in freelisting exercises shows differentiation of anthropogenic from high forests as well as a recognition of diversity in the anthropogenic forests. This suggests that the agents of human-mediated disturbance and landscape transformation in traditional Amazonia encode diversity and contingency into their TK, which encoding reflects past cultural influence on landscape and society over time.

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Section: Primary Vs Secondary Landscape Transformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contingent Diversity on Anthropic Landscapes

Balée

2010

Diversity

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“…For example, previous zooarchaeological research in the Caribbean has demonstrated the intentional inter-island transport and introduction of hutias (a medium-sized endemic rodent) from Hispaniola (and/or Cuba) to Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and possibly the Virgin Islands by Amerindians (Newsom and Wing 2004;Wing 2001Wing , 2012. Furthermore, human agency has also been clearly implicated in the translocation of a wide range of mammalian species from mainland South America into the Antilles in pre-Columbian times (Newsom and Wing 2004;Stahl 2009;Wing 2001Wing , 2008Wing , 2012, including agouti (Newsom and Wing 2004;Wing 2001Wing , 2012, armadillo (Giovas et al 2012;Wing 2012), dog (Grouard 2001;Newsom and Wing 2004;Wing 2008Wing , 2012, guinea pig (LeFebvre and deFrance 2014; Newsom and Wing 2004), opossum (Giovas et al 2012;Grouard 2001;Newsom and Wing 2004;Wing 2012), and possibly also deer and peccary (Giovas et al 2012;Giovas et al 2015). Recently, there has been renewed interest in research pertaining to the presence of nonlocal (mainland) animals and animal remains in the circum-Caribbean.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sourcing nonnative mammal remains from Dos Mosquises Island, Venezuela: new multiple isotope evidence

Laffoon

Sonnemann

Antczak

et al. 2016

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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Archeological excavations of Amerindian sites on Dos Mosquises Island, Los Roques Archipelago, Venezuela, uncovered a wide range of evidence reflecting seasonal exploitation of local resources and multiple ritual depositions of large quantities of ceramic figurines, lithics, and faunal remains. Zooarchaeological analysis revealed the presence of modified and unmodified bones and teeth from numerous imported mammal species. Local geographic and environmental conditions preclude permanent establishment of terrestrial mammal populations and as such, there are no native mammalian taxa on the island itself or the surrounding oceanic archipelago. The presence of these faunal remains on Dos Mosquises can be attributed to the intentional movement of animal resources from the mainland to Los Roques by indigenous groups in the Late Ceramic Age (~AD 1200-1500). Despite attributions to a mainland source region, little else is known about the origins of these unique specimens. Here, we apply strontium (87 Sr/ 86 Sr), oxygen (δ 18 O), and carbon (δ 13 C) isotope analyses of tooth enamel from various archeologically recovered taxa including deer, peccary, tapir, ocelot, margay, opossum, fox, and weasel to investigate their geographic origins via comparisons with macro-regional models of precipitation δ 18 O and bioavailable 87 Sr/ 86 Sr. The 87 Sr/ 86 Sr results are highly variable both for the overall assemblage and between specimens within the same taxa, indicating origins from different geochemical environments of mainland South America. The combined archeological and isotopic evidence are consistent with origins within the late pre-colonial Valencioid Sphere of Interaction which encompassed the Lake Valencia Basin, surrounding regions, and several offshore island groups including Los Roques archipelago.

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“…), and opossum ( Didelphis sp.) (Giovas et al 2011 , 2016 ; also Stahl 2009 ). The extent of deliberate translocations of plant foods is not immediately clear.…”

Section: Human Colonization and Its Biological Effectsmentioning

confidence: 93%

The Biophysical Effects of Neolithic Island Colonization: General Dynamics and Sociocultural Implications

Leppard

2017

Hum Ecol

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Does anthropogenic environmental change constrain long-term sociopolitical outcomes? It is clear that human colonization of islands radically alters their biological and physical systems. Despite considerable contextual variability in local specificities of this alteration, I argue that these processes are to some extent regular, predictable, and have socio-political implications. Reviewing the data for post-colonization ecodynamics, I show that Neolithic colonization of previously insulated habitats drives biotic homogenization. I argue that we should expect such homogenization to promote regular types of change in biophysical systems, types of change that can be described in sum as environmentally convergent. Such convergence should have significant implications for human social organization over the long term, and general dynamics of this sort are relevant in the context of understanding remarkably similar social evolutionary trajectories towards wealth-inequality not only islands, but also more generally.

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Adventive Vertebrates and Historical Ecology in the Pre-Columbian Neotropics

Cited by 22 publications

References 68 publications

Contingent Diversity on Anthropic Landscapes

Contingent Diversity on Anthropic Landscapes

Sourcing nonnative mammal remains from Dos Mosquises Island, Venezuela: new multiple isotope evidence

The Biophysical Effects of Neolithic Island Colonization: General Dynamics and Sociocultural Implications

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