Pre-Columbian Civilizations of the Bolivian Amazon in Lathrapian Perspective

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Reflections and Ripples of the Caiman: Papers in the Spirit of Don Lathrap" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Donald W. Lathrap is probably best respected for his insistence on the priority of tropical forest cultures in the early development and elaboration of domesticates, agricultural economies, pottery, long distance trade and migration, canoe cultures, cultural innovation and early social complexity in the Americas. In his continent-wide perspective, Lathrap recognized the key importance of the “savanna cultures” of Colombia, Guianas, Venezuela, and Bolivia within his larger framework of a shared neotropical forest cultural phenomenon. Working from limited information about pottery styles, settlement mounds, raised fields, causeways, linguistic diversity, and chronology in the 1960s, he highlighted the diverse peoples of the Bolivian Amazon within the “big picture” of the continent. For Lathrap, the Llanos de Mojos played a significant role in demonstrating cultural advancements and achievements in the upper reaches of the Amazon basin and this view is supported by decades of past and recent research on historical ecology, monumentality, engineered landscapes, urbanism, social interaction, and complex societies of the region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Reflections and Ripples of the Caiman: Papers in the Spirit of Don Lathrap   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51772