Pastoreo y caza de camélidos en el Temprano de la Puna de Salta: Datos osteométricos del sitio Matancillas 2

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Los camélidos fueron los recursos faunísticos más importantes para las poblaciones puneñas a lo largo de toda su historia cultural. Así lo indican los registros arqueofaunísticos de la mayoría de los sitios analizados en el Noroeste argentino. Para el Temprano (2500-1350 AP.), la existencia de una diversificación de las estrategias económicas no habría impedido seguir consumiendo mayoritariamente camélidos; más aún, las estrategias pastoriles y cazadoras se habrían centrado en estos recursos. Los datos osteométricos obtenidos de los conjuntos arqueofaunísticos provenientes del sitio Matancillas 2 están de acuerdo con estas consideraciones, ya que se registró la presencia de especímenes correspondientes a llama y vicuña, lo que indicaría una economía con pastoreo y caza. Siguiendo las predicciones de modelos de manejo del riesgo, es posible que la diversificación citada minimizara las fluctuaciones ambientales a las que estaban sometidas las poblaciones de la Puna.

Translated abstract

Camelids were the most important faunal resource for the human populations of the Puna highlands throughout their cultural history in the Argentinean Northwest, as is demonstrated by the archaeofaunal record. During the Temprano period (2500- 1350 BP.), the existence of diversification in economic strategies did not prevent the consumption of camelids predominating. Even most pastoralists and hunters' strategies were centered on these resources. The osteometrical data obtained from the archaeofaunal assemblages of Matancillas 2 site shows the presence of specimens pertaining to llama (a domesticated species) and vicuña (a wild species), suggesting both pastoralism and hunting strategies for the supply of meat. Following the predictions of risk-sensitive models, the combining of these strategies can be explained as a risk-minimization tactic based on the diversification of economic activities to minimize fluctuations in the resource base to which the human populations of this region were exposed.

Related collections

Most cited references 42

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Taphonomic and ecologic information from bone weathering

Anna K. Behrensmeyer (1978)

Bones of recent mammals in the Amboseli Basin, southern Kenya, exhibit distinctive weathering characteristics that can be related to the time since death and to the local conditions of temperature, humidity and soil chemistry. A categorization of weathering characteristics into six stages, recognizable on descriptive criteria, provides a basis for investigation of weathering rates and processes. The time necessary to achieve each successive weathering stage has been calibrated using known-age carcasses. Most bones decompose beyond recognition in 10 to 15 yr. Bones of animals under 100 kg and juveniles appear to weather more rapidly than bones of large animals or adults. Small-scale rather than widespread environmental factors seem to have greatest influence on weathering characteristics and rates. Bone weathering is potentially valuable as evidence for the period of time represented in recent or fossil bone assemblages, including those on archeological sites, and may also be an important tool in censusing populations of animals in modern ecosystems.