Geographic scale and zooarchaeological analysis of Late Holocene foraging adaptations in western Argentina

Previous research on intensification in hunter gatherer strategies from Central West Argentina ca. 2000yearsBP states that human demographic packing and overhunting of guanacos (Lama guanicoe) may have caused resource depression of this large prey animal. As a result, people broadened their diet to...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Otaola, Clara, Wolverton, Steve, Giardina, Miguel Angel, Neme, Gustavo Adolfo
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/37645
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/37645
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Hunter-Gatherers
Nestedness
Resource Intensification
Spatial Scale
Species Area Curves
Zooarchaeology
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6.1
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6
Descripción
Sumario:Previous research on intensification in hunter gatherer strategies from Central West Argentina ca. 2000yearsBP states that human demographic packing and overhunting of guanacos (Lama guanicoe) may have caused resource depression of this large prey animal. As a result, people broadened their diet to include smaller prey animals. Evidence supporting this conclusion includes an increase in Shannon's Diversity Index and a decrease in the abundance of artiodactyl remains over time in southern Mendoza. However, these studies about change in diet breadth did not consider the importance of spatial scale on analysis of prey choice and diet breadth and used the entire region as a unit of analysis. This is problematic because southern Mendoza has a heterogeneous landscape. In this paper we analyze different faunal abundance indices considering different spatial scales and the representativeness of the zooarchaeological samples. The results of the analyses show distinctive patterns of resource use over time at the macro- and subregional scales. Some of the difference can be explained by environmental differences between subregions and others might relate to differences in sample representativeness between subregions.