Archaeology in the Xingu River Basin: Long-Term Histories, Current Threats, and Future Perspectives
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Archaeology in the Xingu River Basin: Long-Term Histories, Current Threats, and Future Perspectives" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
This session brings together researchers working in different portions of the Xingu River basin, a primary tributary of the Amazon. Recent archaeological and anthropological research reveal a complex and diverse cultural and environmental history extending from late Pleistocene to contemporary Indigenous, Maroon (*quilombola) and riverine (*ribeirinhos) occupations. The session focuses on core areas of the basin, the “Xingu corridor,” which forms one of the largest protected areas of tropical biocultural diversity in the world. It highlights how Indigenous and traditional communities and practices have created complex anthropogenic landscapes over the millennia and have significant implications for conservation and sustainability in the region today. Current pressures include a spike in deforestation in the southern Amazon’s “arc of deforestation,” which threatens local communities, biodiversity, and the functional integrity of regional ecosystems. The session considers the Xingu basin as a meso-scale area of analysis in Amazonia, a level of analysis generally lacking from regional studies, which tend to focus on minimal sampling in small plots or macroscopic remote sensing analyses to the expense of in-depth contextualized studies. Such in-depth studies, by necessity conducted in partnership with local communities, are precisely what is needed for archaeology to be relevant cultural heritage rights and sustainability.
Other Keywords
historical ecology •
Ethnography/Ethnoarchaeology •
Environment and Climate •
Cultural Resources and Heritage Management •
Paleoethnobotany •
Phytoliths •
Landscape Archaeology •
Historic •
Indigenous •
contact period
Geographic Keywords
Republic of Peru (Country) •
Republic of Panama (Country) •
Republic of Colombia (Country) •
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Country) •
Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (Country) •
Co-operative Republic of Guyana (Country) •
Republic of Suriname (Country) •
Republic of Ecuador (Country) •
Federative Republic of Brazil (Country) •
South America (Continent)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)
- Documents (9)
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Archaeological Plant Remains from the Lower Xingu (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in the Xingu River Basin: Long-Term Histories, Current Threats, and Future Perspectives" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent archaeological excavations at the sites of Jacupí, Carrazedo, and Gurupá in the Lower Xingu in the Brazilian Amazon have implemented a significant program for the recovery of plant remains, resulting in a large archaeobotanical assemblage currently undergoing analysis. Recent...
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An Archaeology of Hope: How the Past Informs Indigenous Futures in the Southern Amazon’s “Arc of Deforestation" (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in the Xingu River Basin: Long-Term Histories, Current Threats, and Future Perspectives" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Two decades of relentless agropastoral development has reduced the closed tropical forests to small patches in most of northern Mato Grosso, within the so-called “arc of deforestation” along the southern margins of the Amazon’s closed tropical forests. There are larger blocks in two...
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Finding Sites in the Amazon Forest: AI-Based Deep Learning Analysis of Satellite Imagery from the Upper Xingu Basin, Brazil (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in the Xingu River Basin: Long-Term Histories, Current Threats, and Future Perspectives" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper summarizes preliminary results of an AI-based analysis that identifies potential precolumbian Amazonian archaeological site locations based on the presence of clusters of a specific species of palm tree. The study uses Landsat-8, Sentinel-2, and Planet satellite imagery as...
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Formation Processes, Fertility, Spatial Extent, and Carbon Content of Anthropogenic Soils in the Upper Xingu, Southern Amazon (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in the Xingu River Basin: Long-Term Histories, Current Threats, and Future Perspectives" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent research in the Upper Xingu carried out in partnership with the indigenous Kuikuro community (Associação Indígena Kuikuro do Alto Xingu; AIKAX) has revealed that modified soils associated with archaeological remains and possibly with ancient cultivation areas may be much more...
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A Historical Perspective on the Nature of Precolonial Settlements in the Middle Xingu River Basin (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in the Xingu River Basin: Long-Term Histories, Current Threats, and Future Perspectives" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In order to understand the processes that generated the rich, complex, and diverse cultural and environmental history present in Amazonia, and specifically along the Xingu River basin, it is crucial that we generate information on when, where, and how small-scale foraging societies...
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Identifying Past Vegetation Dynamics in Xingu Indigenous Territory Using Soil Phytolith Analysis (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in the Xingu River Basin: Long-Term Histories, Current Threats, and Future Perspectives" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the preliminary hypotheses of a soil sampling programme aimed at mapping precolumbian and historic vegetation dynamics in the Xingu Indigenous Territory (TIX), Brazil. Research carried out with the Kuikuro during the last three decades has resulted in the archaeology...
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Landscapes of the Mid-Low Xingu: Archaeology, Temporality, and *Longue Durée Indigenous Stories (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in the Xingu River Basin: Long-Term Histories, Current Threats, and Future Perspectives" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation deals with the archaeological research carried out in the indigenous land Koatinemo, together with the Asurini do Xingu Indigenous people. From this experience, a reflection on the temporality of the landscapes and on the *longue durée Indigenous stories of the mid-low...
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OCA—Culture, Origins, and Environment: Archaeological Collaborative Research in the Lower Xingu (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in the Xingu River Basin: Long-Term Histories, Current Threats, and Future Perspectives" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The project investigates the historical ecology of a poorly studied area: the confluence of the Xingu and Amazon Rivers, in the lower Amazon region. By investigating distinct lines of archaeological evidence on a regional scale, it addresses, as an underlying research theme, the...
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The Pristine Myth and Its Consequences for Amazonian Forest Peoples: An Example From the Upper Iriri (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in the Xingu River Basin: Long-Term Histories, Current Threats, and Future Perspectives" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Located in the Xingu-Tapajós interfluve, the Terra do Meio is currently made up of a mosaic of protected areas and Indigenous reserves. This case study considers the relationship between the riverine traditional communities (who call themselves *beiradeiros) of the upper Iriri River and...