Abstract
This is a critical review of the main models concerning the System of Orinoco Regional Interdependence. On one hand, early proposals define the system as a heuristic model of interethnic levels of sociocultural integration among autonomous polities. According to this view, this network of cultures belonged to a cultural matrix based on political horizontality and ecological complementarity. This stable system was transformed and eventually destroyed by the impact of the West. On the other hand, critical examinations of recent data questions this model, emphasizing the diverse and complex nature of Amerindian political organizations and the diversity of regional and subregional systems of economic and sociopolitical relations. Here, I examine the development of the system as a long-term process that affected regional polities and local systems in diverse ways through time. Late developments of macrosystems may be seen as rather mestizo artifacts of the expansion of the European world system. In conclusion, simple dichotomies and typologies (egalitarian/complex, nature/culture, Amerindian/European, pristine/colonial) do not work well to explain economic, social, and political institutions that cover diverse environments, societies, and processes of historical change over several millennia.
Published Version
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