More than a Label: Social Complexity, Variability and Social Diversity in the Orinoco and Amazon Basins
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)
The variability of the social organization of pre-Columbian and colonial societies constitutes one of the most critical aspects to the archaeological debate in the Orinoco and Amazon basins. Since the seminal works of Lathrap, Meggers, Roosevelt and Whitehead, the question about the nature of the sociopolitical, leadership on the societies from both the Orinoquian and Amazonia has been at the core of the archaeological and ethnohistorical research. The study of agricultural production, settlement patterns and exchange among others, resulted central to understand the great diversity of social organization of the human groups in this area. This session proposes the discussion about the social political dynamics of the societies from the Orinoco and Amazon basin. An important focus of the session´s discussion will rest on the methodological issues as well as the critics on the use of concepts as such as chiefdom, chiefs, chieftancy and complex societies to understand the area’s cultural development.
Other Keywords
demography •
complex societies •
Gis •
Landscape Archaeology •
Social Variability •
Leadership •
Variability •
Amazon •
Complex society •
Diversidad
Geographic Keywords
South America
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-6 of 6)
- Documents (6)
-
Can we measure the degree of social complexity within Quimi Valley? (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The Upper Amazon has been considered a place of weak socio-political integration, along with poor agricultural production, mostly sustained on fishing and hunter-gathering. However, during the last decade, archaeological research carried out in Quimi Valley (Zamora-Chinchipe) has demonstrated the presence of social complexes of about thousands of inhabitants around the valley. While discussion about the existence of sedentary communities during the Integration Period (700 – 1420 AD) has been...
-
Contributions to understanding demography and settlement patterns in the Valle del Quimi, Zamora-Chinchipe Province, Ecuador (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Carvajal´s descriptions of the Upper Amazonian populations created controversies, given that little evidence was presented until recently, by the archaeologists about the demography of the area. Only few studies in the Upper Amazonia region have contributed with data for the reconstruction of local demography, given that most of the work has been enforced as contract archeology projects within the oil and mining industry, with specific questions on mine and lack of regional scope. In the Valle...
-
De regreso al Valle de los Quijos (Ecuador): aproximaciones gráficas factoriales para interpretar la concentración de basura prehistórica como el momento de compactación sociopolítica de los cacicazgos (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Estudios neo- evolucionistas desarrollados en las últimas décadas, muchos inspirados en las investigaciones arqueológicas desarrolladas en el Valle de la Plata, Colombia, plantean como un elemento fundamental la identificación de unidades políticas cacicales a partir de la dispersión de material cultural en la superficie de las áreas prospectadas. Investigaciones recientes llevadas adelante por nosotros en el Valle de los ríos Cosanga y Quijos, en la Ceja de Montaña Oriental de los Andes...
-
Diversidad y Complementariedad en los Desarrollos Sociales Precolombinos de las Cuencas Upano y Palora, Morona Santiago, Ecuador (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
En Pablo Sexto, Amazonía Sur del Ecuador, se ha descubierto una variabilidad, en cuanto a modos de vida de sus pobladores, a través de los años (2.000 a.C. – 1.700 d.C.). El estudio llevado a cabo en esta zona, fue financiado por SENESCYT e INPC, para la obtención de datos paleobotánicos. Dentro de este contexto, la posición teórica adoptada fue la Ecología Histórica, entendiendo a la cultura material: cerámica, lítica y suelos, como productos tecnológicos, culturales, económicos y políticos,...
-
Mapping a Large Scale Amazonian Landscape using GIS (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Among the many challenges for landscape archaeologists is the “palimpsest” nature of the landscapes that they try to study. Archaeologists around the world have long been at work using GIS to study a wide range of questions across scales from meters to thousands of kilometers, and from single occupations to thousands of years. Thinking of archaeological landscapes as a palimpsest uses the recognition that connecting individual landscape features exclusively to a single moment or period of time...
-
Social variability and leadership strategies in the Llanos of the Orinoco (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Ethnohistoric descriptions and archaeological evidence suggest that in the Llanos regions of Casanare (Colombia) and Barinas (Venezuela) between the Andes and the Orinoco/Amazon basin, agricultural intensification provided the resources that enabled aspiring elites to pursue their political strategies during prehispanic times. Warfare and feasting were especially important strategies in the early complex societies of Barinas. The presence of nearby highly developed Muisca chiefdoms, however,...