The Southern Divide: Testing morphological differences among bifacial points from southern and southeastern Brazil using geometric morphometrics

Abstract

Abstract:Bifacial points have been used to characterize the "Umbu" tradition in southern and southeastern Brazil. This archaeological tradition has been related to sites dated from the late Pleistocene-early Holocene boundary to near historical times. Such a huge temporal range and vast territory have suggested the existence of greater diversity within this tradition that has been ignored thus far due to the lack of systematic regional studies of such points. Through geometric morphometric analysis, this article aims to test the hypothesis that there are substantial differences in the Holocene bifacial points associated with the Umbu tradition in southeastern Brazil. Five landmarks were digitized in standardized photographs from 658 points from the states of São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul. The results show that points made by groups from southeastern Brazil (São Paulo state) present a very distinct morphology (size and shape) in comparison to those made by the southern groups (Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul). This would indicate a regional identity shared only by some groups from São Paulo (at least regarding the projectile points). It is possible that Umbu tradition presents a more restricted range, both in chronological and spatial terms, than the one proposed so far.

Extreme cultural persistence in eastern-central Brazil: the case of Lagoa Santa Paleaeoindians

“…This set of material culture is both formally and technologically unrelated to other known contemporaneous archaeological traditions (such as Umbu and Itaparica, Figure 1; Lourdeau 2015, Moreno de Sousa 2016, 2017, Okumura and Araujo 2016, and its persistence in time can be best explained by the presence of a single line of cultural transmission, or a cultural phylogeny. The most parcimonious explanation involves the operation of a very stable cultural transmission process, resulting in a cultural tradition in its most exact sense, or "patterned ways of doing things that exist in identifiable form over extended periods of time" (O´Brien et al 2010:3797).…”

Fronteiras sul e sudeste: Uma análise morfométrica de pontas bifaciais de Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Paraná e Rio Grande do Sul (Brasil)

“…Archaeological sites and their respective states of origin in Brazil; absolute dates (years before present) with laboratory code; and calibrated dates (calibrated years before present). Dates can be found in Brochado & Schmitz (1973); Miller (1974); Ribeiro et al (1989); Ribeiro & Ribeiro (1999); Schmitz (2006); Koole (2007;2014); Chmyz et al (2008); Araujo (2012); Dias (2012); Okumura & Araujo (2014;2015a, 2016. Dates were calibrated with the CalPal software (Danzeglocke 2007) and the Intcal98 calibration curve (Stuiver 2006 Foi aplicado o teste de Shapiro-Wilk para verificar a distribuição normal do tamanho do centróide em cada grupo.…”

“…Esse panorama tornou-se ainda mais complexo dada a falta de datações sistemáticas desses sítios. Estas, quando realizadas, revelaram idades que abrangiam todo o Holoceno e em alguns casos até mesmo o fim do Pleistoceno (Schmitz et al 1980;Schmitz 1999;Noelli 2000, Okumura & Araujo 2016. Outro fator complicador foi a descoberta de sítios que apresentavam pontas bifaciais nas demais regiões do país.…”

“…Em termos de tamanho, verifica-se que as pontas da Gruta do Marinheiro e do Tunas são, de maneira geral, menores em relação a alguns grupos (Alice Boer, Bom Jardim Velho e Dalpiaz). Já os espécimes de Alice Boer tendem a ser, em média, maiores do que os de Tunas, Garivaldino e Dalpiaz (Okumura & Araujo 2013;2015b;2016). Por último, as pontas de Dalpiaz seriam, em média, maiores do que as de Garivaldino.…”

“…De modo geral, pode-se dizer que não há diferenças marcantes entre os grupos do Rio Grande do Sul (Okumura & Araujo 2013;2015b;2016), embora algumas diferenças em termos de tamanho tenham sido observadas entre Dalpiaz e Garivaldino. As diferenças observadas na forma das pontas de Morro da Flecha 1 e os demais grupos gaúchos devem ser pensadas levando-se em conta o pequeno tamanho amostral desse grupo.…”