Resumen

BONOMO, Mariano  y  CAPELETTI, Luis Enrique. Prehispanic use of Syagrus romanzoffiana and Butia yatay palms in the Argentinian Northeast: contributions from ethnography and biometrics. Rev. Mus. Antropol. [online]. 2014, vol.7, n.2, pp.00-00. ISSN 1852-060X.

The southern distribution of the Arecaceae palm family (=Palmae) in southern South America reached the La Plata Basin. This paper focuses on two species of this family, Syagrus romanzoffiana and Butia yatay which micro and macro-remains have been preserved in Late Holocene archaeological sites in the Argentinean Northeast. The archaeological record indicates that they were important in the diet and surely in technology. In addition, ethnographic groups belonging to different linguistic stocks (Tupi, Macro-Jê, Guaycurú) show that these plants had a central role in La Plata Basin. However, prior to this study it had not been done any systematic analysis in the Northeast region, or approaches from different lines of analysis in order to increase the taxonomic and economic information that can be obtained from both palms remains. By the review of the ethnographic literature, the determination of fruit net returns and the study of the qualitative-quantitative attributes of endocarps, the potential uses of this resource and the fruit productivity are established, and tools for taxonomic identification are also provided. These allow us to deepen our knowledge of the pre-Hispanic use of palm trees in the region.

Palabras clave : La Plata Basin; Arecaceae; fruit productivity; taxonomic identification.

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