OCA—Culture, Origins, and Environment: Archaeological Collaborative Research in the Lower Xingu

Summary

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 relationships among environmental factors, material culture, and human groups. From a diachronic perspective, it highlights the forms of human-environment interaction with particular interest in understanding the processes of formation and use of the anthropogenic soils; the creation of cultural forests; and the stylistic interactions of material culture. The project is based at the Goeldi Museum in Belem/Para/Brazil and involves several archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, biologists, geographers, and several students. We will present results from field and lab work done since 2014, including the regional chronology, questions of territoriality, and use of space and landscaping, both in the precolumbian indigenous past, interactions resulting from the complex colonial history of this region, as well as some aspects of today’s *ribeirinhos culture. It is developed in full collaboration with the inhabitants of Gurupá, making the knowledge construction a shared experience.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Archaeology in the Xingu River Basin: Long-Term Histories, Current Threats, and Future Perspectives

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32332