Swordfish Hunting as Prestige Signaling within Middle Holocene Fishing Communities of the Atacama Desert Coast?

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.

Since around 8500 years BP, the archaeological record on the Southern Coast of the Atacama Desert shows evidence of growing population density and low residential mobility. A maritime specialization process is also evident by a rich set of specialized tools, and a pronounced increase in the abundance and richness of fish assemblages. Among these fish assemblages, the presence of offshore species like sharks, dolphins and swordfish has been considered as indirect evidence of navigation technology. How do we understand and contextualize the presence of big offshore prey within the context of increasing population and social complexity evidenced by the archaeological record of the Taltal area (25° S)? In the present work, we attempt to discuss, through Costly Signaling Theory, the appearance of swordfish hunting in the context of growing population density and lower residential mobility. We will argue that this social context may have generated the need to differentiate individuals in order to avoid costly conflicts. Can this approach enrich our interpretations of the sociopolitical context of fishing communities from the study area? Was swordfish hunting a mechanism of prestige signaling? The present study aims to discuss these questions presenting archaeological data from the Middle Holocene of Taltal.

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): 24402