Drivers and Consequences of Past Human Migrations: Life-History Approach for the Southern Andes (WGF - Post PhD Research Grant)

Summary

This resource is an application for the Post PhD Research Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation.

Migrations are an intrinsic aspect of human societies, past and present. This global character can be used to build a comparative anthropological framework seeking to understand the drivers and consequences of migration. Within this agenda, we seek to comprehend what are the causes and social effects of a rapid migration pulse recorded between AD 1270-1420 in the southern Andes (Uspallata Valley, 32ºS, Mendoza, Argentina), shortly preceding the Inka conquest. We will develop a bottom-up approach to human life-histories linking the micro-scale of the individual with the level of households, communities, and larger social groups. This will be based on an interdisciplinary bioarchaeological approach to burial sites in Uspallata, combining the analysis of intra-individual stability and inter-individual diversity in diet and residence as measured by stable and radiogenic isotopes, the demographic profiles of the sites with migrants and locals, causes of the death, and biological distances as revealed by paleogenomics. We contend that the life-history approach allows bridging scales between short-term contemporary approaches to migration studies and deep time diachronic studies of migration and cultural change. By building on this case-study we will foster a comparative approach to life-histories, lineages, and migrations in the southern Andes and beyond.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• WGF - Support for Research Projects   •
• Wenner-Gren Foundation

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Contact(s): Wenner-Gren Foundation

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Rights & Attribution: This resource is an application from the Wenner-Gren Foundation and has been approved by the grantee solely for pedagogical purposes. Please do not cite, circulate, or duplicate any part of these documents without the express written consent of the author.

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