Double Coloniality in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

Abstract

Guichón and co-authors open the windows on the contact experience in Tierra de Fuego in southern Argentina. These authors explore colonialism to the very end of the archaeological record at the Salesian mission of La Candelaria, which was founded in 1897 and abandoned in the 1940s. Drawing from diverse documentary sources, Guichón and colleagues construct a remarkably contextualized case study and a guiding theoretical framework involving “double colonialism.” Diversity in mortuary practices at La Candelaria indicates that peoples buried there possessed distinct social identities (i.e., clergy, settlers, and Selk’nam natives). A paleopathological study of the human remains indicated mission residents experienced a notable degree of biological stress in the forms of porotic hyperostosis, cribra orbitalia, dental enamel hypoplasia, non-specific periosteal reactions, worsened oral health, and a high prevalence of skeletal tuberculosis, all emerging as functions of socioeconomic reality created by the mission setting.

Paleopathological Research in Southern Patagonia: An Approach to Understanding Stress and Disease in Hunter-Gatherer Populations

“…A recent study of skeletons buried at the cemetery of the “La Candelaria” mission (Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego), showed a prevalence of 92% of porotic hyperostosis and 23% of cribra orbitalia in adult individuals (García Laborde 2017). These frequencies are higher than those found by Guichón (1994) and Suby (2014a) in samples from Northern Tierra del Fuego. Suby (2014a) suggested that Native–European contact in Southern Patagonia could have had a more important impact on the health of individuals who lived in missions than on those who did not.…”

“…A low frequency of antemortem tooth loss (AMTL) has been typically reported, with some exceptions and differences among groups. Pérez-Pérez and Lalueza Fox (1992) reported a higher prevalence in Selk'nam (2.6%) and Aonikenk (5.7%) than in Kaweshkar (0.2%) and Yamanas (1.7%), whereas Guichón (1994) identified a prevalence of 17.9% in the complete analyzed sample. Moreover, Schinder and Guichón (2003) showed a higher prevalence in individuals with terrestrial (33%) and mixed (20%) diets than in those with marine (2%) diets.…”

“…Although periosteal reactions have been reported on many occasions (e.g., Constantinescu 1999; Guichón and Suby 2011; L'Heureux et al 2003; Santiago et al 2011), only two studies are specifically centered on this condition, both of which regarding skulls. Guichón (1994) studied 54 skulls and mandibles from Tierra del Fuego and southern continental Patagonia, most of them undated. In this sample, 12.9% of individuals exhibited periosteal reactions in their crania.…”

“…Most of the studied skeletons have not been dated, and for that reason, temporal changes cannot be described. For the most part, authors found a low prevalence of skeletons with caries, with the exception of Guichón (1994). Pérez-Pérez and Lalueza Fox (1992) studied 165 crania housed in museums from Chile and Argentina, ethnographically classified as Aonikenk, Selk'nam, Kaweshkar, and Yámana (Supplemental Text 1), reporting only 7.3% of the individuals as having caries.…”

“…Most of the studies produced during the 1990s focused on oral disease, degenerative joint disease, and some stress markers such as cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, and lineal hypoplasia of the dental enamel (e.g., Aspillaga and Ocampo 1996; Aspillaga et al 1999; Constantinescu 1997, 1999). These results were frequently descriptive and were assumed to be indicators of adaptation of human societies to the cold and harsh environment in which they lived; only a few authors offered quantitative data of disease patterns from skeletal samples (e.g., Castro and Aspillaga 1991; Guichón 1994; Pérez-Pérez and Lalueza-Fox 1992). In contrast, during the two first decades of the twenty-first century, researchers focused on the study of the spatial and temporal distribution of bone and oral diseases and skeletal lesions, the association of these phenomena with economic and dietary patterns, and the possible health changes produced as a consequence of Native–European contact.…”