Mobility and Territoriality in the Early Peopling of Central Brazilian Plateau

Summary

The occupation of Central Brazilian Plateau between late Pleistocene and early Holocene seems to have privileged as displacement axies the fluvial valleys of the great perennial rivers that crosscut this region. This proposal is based on the existence of sites with similar characteristics, located at great distances, as the Rio Peruaçu (Minas Gerais state) and the Serra da Capivara (Piauí state), connected to the same hidrografic basin, and presenting same occupation chronologies. Throughout these main axies of displacement, certain places that are marked by resource diversity and specific landscape features, had been frequently used, with recurrent occupations since the late Pleistocene and continuously throughout the Holocene. Our proposal emphasizes that such places, that could have been initially selected in function of the available resource diversity in a period of climatic instability, had passed to be conceived in another way, acquiring a different status during the occupation process of Central Plateau. This “change of status” could be related to the changing perception that such places are “places of people”, marked with recognizable signs of human agency, mainly represented by rock art. Such process involves different patterns of mobility and territoriality.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Mobility and Use of Space in Late Pleistocene South America: Is it Possible to Discuss Early Human Regional Ranking?

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