Abstract

BARRIENTOS, Gustavo. Una aproximación bioarqueológica al estudio del poblamiento prehispánico tardío del Sudeste de la Región Pampeana. Intersecciones antropol. [online]. 2001, n.2, pp.03-19. ISSN 1850-373X.

The aims of this paper are to present, compare and discuss the growing bioarchaeological database available for the late human populations from the southeastern Pampean Region in Argentina. These data are related to the regional structure of the bioarchaeological record, the sample distribution of bone and dental indicators of health status, nutrition and diet, and cranial and postcranial morphological diversity. All the bioarchaeological evidence suggests the existence during the Late Holocene of conditions promoting a reduction in group mobility, a broadening of diet spectrum, increased emphasis in processing of some relatively low return vegetal resources, such as seeds and sheaths, territorial behavior and, in some areas, population competition and replacement. These changes are explained as the result of demographic and geographic expansion leading to the effective occupation of all the available regional space after a probable population retraction during the Middle Holocene (ca. 6000-5000 years BP) and, later, the geographic expansion of north patagonian population into the area. The theoretical grounds for the discussion are provided by some principles taken from the emergent field of evolutionary geography (Lahr and Foley 1998), and from evolutionary ecology (Travelers-Processors Model; Bettinger and Baumhoff 1982).

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