Between Foragers and Farmers: Climate Change and Human Strategies in Northwestern Patagonia

Adolfo F Gil,Clara Otaola,Cinthia C Abbona,Ricardo Villalba,Eva A Peralta,Fernando R Franchetti,Gustavo Neme

doi:10.3390/quat3020017

Abstract

In this paper we explore how changes in human strategies are differentially modulated by climate in a border area between hunter-gatherers and farmers. We analyze multiple proxies: radiocarbon summed probability distributions (SPDs), stable C and N isotopes, and zooarchaeological data from northwestern Patagonia. Based on these proxies, we discuss aspects of human population, subsistence, and dietary dynamics in relation to long-term climatic trends marked by variation in the Southern Annular Mode (SAM). Our results indicate that the farming frontier in northwestern Patagonia was dynamic in both time and space. We show how changes in temperature and precipitation over the last 1000 years cal BP have influenced the use of domestic plants and the hunting of highest-ranked wild animals, whereas no significant changes in human population size occurred. During the SAM positive phase between 900 and 550 years cal BP, warmer and drier summers are associated with an increase in C4 resource consumption (maize). After 550 years cal BP, when the SAM changes to the negative phase, wetter and cooler summer conditions are related to a change in diet focused on wild resources, especially meat. Over the past 1000 years, there was a non-significant change in the population based on the SPD.

Highlights

IntroductionFor most archaeologists, farming was an evolutionary, progressive, and irreversible process [1,2,3,4]
For most archaeologists, farming was an evolutionary, progressive, and irreversible process [1,2,3,4].From this perspective, farming’s origin and expansion led to population increases and occupation of new areas
This paper focuses on southern Mendoza, in northwestern Patagonia, where we will concentrate on two desert ecosystems: Monte Desert and Patagonia Desert (Figure 1; [22,23,24])

Summary

Introduction

For most archaeologists, farming was an evolutionary, progressive, and irreversible process [1,2,3,4] From this perspective, farming’s origin and expansion led to population increases and occupation of new areas. Recent research demonstrated that the border area among hunter-gatherers and farming societies never was the case for a lineal non-reversible expansion [8,9,10]. Both subsistence strategies were reversible, and even complementary on incipient farming. During the late Holocene, people occupied new areas, including the most inhospitable regions of La Payunia and the high-altitude Andes [35,36]. The intensity of land use increased in terms of both the diversity and density of archaeological assemblages during the last 2300 years cal BP [31,37,38,39].

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Conclusion