Extensification in Archaeology

Summary

The concept of extensification was used in a ethnographical sense, particularly by L. Binford (2001). It was deeply related with the new organization of American hunter-gatherers when horses were introduced in the continent by European people. The main examples to introduce this concept were the Great Plains societies in North America and the Tehuelche society in Patagonia, South America.

However, the use of the concept of extensification in an archaeological perspective is not very usual. Furthermore, its definition is not very clear; more related with its opposition, the concept of intensification; a term more well defined and used in Archaeology.

In this presentation, the main pourpose is to clarify this concept in terms of its use in an archaeological example of Southern Patagonia. Also, the example takes into account a case of European precontact, previous to the introduction of horses in the Tehuelche society. The use of Binford´s frame of references, like environmental information and Effective Temperatures (ET), were an useful tool to identify cases of the process of extensification in the study area.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Archaeological Analysis Using Binford’s Environmental and Ethnographic Frames of Reference

Keywords

Spatial Coverage