From the Forest to the Steppe: Mobility Strategies of Late-Marine Hunters (Alacaluf) in the Strait of Magellan, Chile

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Human Behavioral Ecology at the Coastal Margins: Global Perspectives on Coastal & Maritime Adaptations" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In this paper we discuss the characteristics of marine hunter-gatherer peopling (Alakaluf) in the Strait of Magellan (52°30'- 54°00'S) during the last 2000 radiocarbon years. Focusing on zooarchaeological information and other sources of evidence, we evaluated the modalities of use of space and the relationships with seasonal availability and concentration of faunal resources in a region characterized by a marked environmental west-east gradient.

The coastal archaeological record shows an extensive use of this territory, which integrated hyper-humid forest environments predominantly associated with marine resources (western zone) and forest-steppe ecotone areas associated with the combined exploitation of terrestrial and marine resources (central-eastern zone). Based on information on the intensity of occupations, the faunal exploitation modalities and the inferred seasonality for the use of the different zones of the Strait of Magellan, we propose a model for the late settlement of the area, centered on the summer concentration of marine resources in islands (breeding colonies of birds and pinnipeds), and the combined exploitation of terrestrial mammals and marine resources in the steppe-forest ecotone zones of the continental shoreline during winter.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Human Behavioral Ecology at the Coastal Margins: Global Perspectives on Coastal & Maritime Adaptations   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26016