More than a Label: Social Complexity, Variability and Social Diversity in the Orinoco and Amazon Basins

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.