Las prácticas de subsistencia de las sociedades cazadoras-recolectoras del noroeste de la Patagonia argentina a lo largo del Holoceno

Abstract

La explotación del guanaco (Lama guanicoe) como recurso principal –proveedor no sólo de carne y grasa sino también materia prima para la confección de varios tipos de instrumentos, de vestimentas y de viviendas– ha variado a lo largo del Holoceno en el noroeste de la Patagonia. El siguiente trabajo analiza la información disponible y propone un modelo explicativo que da cuenta de las prácticas de subsistencia de las sociedades cazadoras-recolectoras que habitaron el área de estudio durante este período. Al inicio del Holoceno existían dos modos de vida con economías marcadamente diferentes. Los primeros ocupantes de la estepa, que basaban su subsistencia en la obtención del guanaco con una tecnología de puntas de proyectil, se extendieron a la zona ecotonal, donde los grupos con una tecnología sencilla hecha en materias primas locales explotaban principalmente animales medianos y chicos y poco guanaco. La explotación del guanaco se generalizó a mediados del Holoceno en el ecotono y la estepa, pero siempre se complementó con fauna menor, vegetales, moluscos y peces. En el tránsito de los últimos 2.000 años, la cantidad de especies explotadas aumentó significativamente junto con la diversidad.

Diet composition and prey choice in prehistoric human individuals from Northwest Patagonia: An application of species distribution and isotope mixing models

“…We developed a robust approach to evaluate the variation in the diet composition and prey choice of human populations from Northwest Patagonia (Figure 1). First, we determined the list of species potentially consumed by human populations in the region based on previous studies (e.g., Barberena, Prates, & de Porras, 2015;Cordero, 2010Cordero, , 2011Fernández, 1988Fernández, -1990Llano, 2015;Otaola et al, 2012;Rindel, 2017;Rindel, Gord on, et al, 2021). Then, we modeled the past potential spatial distributions of these species throughout the region using SSDM (Elith & Leathwick, 2009;Guisan et al, 2017;Schmitt et al, 2017).…”

“…S1). All considered species present some direct or indirect evidence of probable consumption by humans in the studied region (Barberena, Borrazzo, et al, 2015;Bernal et al, 2021;Cordero, 2010Cordero, , 2011Fernández, 2008;Gil et al, 2020;Gord on et al, 2018;Otaola et al, 2012;Rindel, 2017). We also estimated the distributions of three large carnivores (gray fox [Lycalopex griseus], red fox [Lycalopex culpaeus], and puma [Puma concolor]) that could have been occasionally consumed (Rindel, 2017) and which were direct competitors of humans for the animal resources.…”

“…The reason for these results probably resides in a high environmental heterogeneity, displaying differences between the western and eastern sectors of the region and from north to south, and thus generating localized distributions of plants and animals available for human consumption, as well as different prey choice patterns. Finally, we want to highlight a methodological aspect of our work: the use of isotopic data allows the analysis of variability in individual diets, an aspect that is difficult to resolve from other archaeological data, thus enriching the discussions generated from other lines of evidence such as zooarchaeology (Cordero, 2007(Cordero, , 2010Gil et al, 2020;Neme & Gil, 2008;Otaola et al, 2012;Perez & Batres, 2008;Rindel, 2017;Rindel, Gord on, et al, 2021;among others). Moreover, since inter-individual variation in dietary resources acquisition and consumption due to diverse factors is a widespread phenomenon in many species, modeling the diet individually appears as an appropriate approach which, in turn, allows to avoid the clustering of human consumers in ad hoc groups (Adams et al, 2017;Araújo et al, 2011;Bernal et al, 2021;Bolnick et al, 2003).…”

“…Northwest Patagonia is a vast region that presents high environmental heterogeneity, ranging from the temperate-cold Patagonian forest in the southwest to the Monte desert in the northeast, and showing high spatial variation in the occurrence of animal and plant species (Arana et al, 2017;Oyarzabal et al, 2018), and therefore in resource availability for hunter-gatherer groups. Previous archaeological studies identified the main species consumed by prehistoric human groups in the region, among which large herbivores and small mammals (e.g., guanaco, lesser rhea, pichi, mountain viscacia), and some wild C3 plants (e.g., alpataco) stand out (Barberena, Prates, & de Porras, 2015;Cordero, 2010Cordero, , 2011Llano, 2015;Neme et al, 2011;Otaola et al, 2012;Rindel, 2017). Recent studies suggest that human groups with different diets coexisted throughout the Middle-Late Holocene in Northwest Patagonia (Bernal et al, 2021;Gord on et al, 2018;Rindel, Gord on, et al, 2021).…”

“…Moreover, studies directly investigating prey choice are absent in the region. Previous studies are generally based on presence-absence or frequency data of animal remains and, to a lesser extent, of vegetables (i.e., zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical data; Cordero, 2011;Crivelli Montero et al, 1996;Fernández, 1988Fernández, -1990Lema et al, 2012;Neme et al, 2011;Otaola et al, 2012;Rindel, 2017), providing evidence of their relative contribution on a regional scale (Cordero, 2007(Cordero, , 2010Gil et al, 2020;Neme & Gil, 2008;Otaola et al, 2012;Pérez & Batres, 2008;Rindel, 2017;Rindel, Gord on, et al, 2021; among others). During the last decades the employment of stable isotopes, along with the use of mixing models, has been a breakthrough in the study of the diet composition of prehistoric human populations in the region (Bernal et al, 2016(Bernal et al, , 2021Fernández & Panarello, 2001;Gil et al, 2011;Gil, Villalba, et al, 2014;Gord on et al, 2018;Novellino et al, 2004).…”