Emergent Complexity, Changing Landscapes, and Spheres of Interaction in Southeastern South America During the Middle and Late Holocene

Abstract

Newly created academic programs at Brazilian universities have provided the impetus for new archaeological projects in southeastern South America during the last two decades. The new data are changing our views on emergent social complexity, natural and human-induced transformation of the landscape, and transcontinental expansions and cultural interactions across the Río de la Plata basin during the Middle and Late Holocene. We concentrate on six major archaeological traditions/regions: the Sambaquis, the Pantanal, the Constructores de Cerritos, the Tupiguarani, the Southern Proto-Jê, and the middle and lower Paraná River. Diverse and autonomous complex developments exhibit distinct built landscapes in a region previously thought of as marginal compared with cultural developments in the Andes or Mesoamerica. The trajectories toward increased sociopolitical complexity flourished in very different and changing environmental conditions. While some groups were pushed to wetland areas during a drier mid-Holocene, others took advantage of the more humid Late Holocene climate to intensively manage Araucaria forests. The start of the second millennium AD was a critical period marked by an increased number of archaeological sites, the construction of ceremonial architecture, and the intensification of landscape transformation; it also was marked by the rapid expansion of influences from outside the La Plata basin. The Amazonian Tupiguarani and Arawak newcomers brought with them significant changes in technologies and social and political structures, as well as novel landscape management practices.

Evidence of variability in carbohydrate consumption in prehistoric fisher‐hunter‐gatherers of Southeastern Brazil: Spatiotemporal trends of oral health markers

“…Although the chronology of these findings requires refinement, our classification of microremains by chronological phases (Boyadjian et al, : Table ) suggests consumption of more tubers in the late phase. Thus, the observed changes in the oral health markers might reflect a process of intensification of plant production associated with the presence of “black earth” (attributed to the intrusion of Jê inland populations) on the top of this sambaqui (DeBlasis et al, ; Iriarte et al, ). What effects resulted from the introduction of pottery concerning the oral health patterns of sambaqui populations?…”

“…The South American East Coast has played a key role in human history since the Late Pleistocene and throughout the Holocene (Iriarte, DeBlasis, De Souza, & Corteletti, ). A distinctive archaeological feature along the coast of Brazil is the presence of shell mounds (called sambaquis ) that during the Middle and Late Holocene (8200–1,000 BP) witness a large‐scale exploitation of coastal resources, ranging from transitional waters to fully marine environments (Lima, ).…”

Finding Archaeology in 2017: What Is Archaeology and Why Are We Doing It? Why Should We Be Doing It?

“…This call seems to be borne out in the literature this year, with investigations ranging from architecture, landscape, and power in the development of social complexity in South America (Iriarte et al. ) to ancient Nubia (Manzo ). Other studies focus on the role of cooperation (González García ), collective action (DeMarrais and Earle ), or coercion (Kim ).…”

Las poblaciones indígenas prehispánicas del río Paraná Inferior y Medio

“…Estas estructuras conservan restos arqueológicos producto de actividades domésticas, extractivas, productivas y, en numerosos casos, funerarias. Las mayores concentraciones de montículos prehispánicos en las llanuras aluviales de la cuenca del Plata, se registran en el Alto río Paraguay (Schmidt 1912;Eremites de Oliveira 1996;Schmitz et al 2004;Peixoto 2005), el Paraná Inferior (Bonomo et al 2011a;Politis et al 2011;Castiñeira et al 2013), el Uruguay Inferior (Capdepont 2012;Castro , 2018Castro & Castiñeira 2017; López Mazz 2018), las cuencas del río Tacuarembó (noreste de Uruguay; Gianotti 2016) y de las lagunas Merín-de los Patos (este de Bonomo, M. et al "Las poblaciones indígenas del río Paraná" 587 Uruguay y sureste del Brasil; Bracco et al 2000;López Mazz et al 2016;García 2017;Iriarte et al 2017a;Milheira & Gianotti 2018).…”