Seafaring as a Key Element in the First Peopling of the Americas: A Perspective from the Southern Cone

Abstract

The Americas were the last continental areas to be inhabited by modern human beings. The Jesuit Father de Acosta had already proposed in 1590 that the first peopling might have involved the use of watercraft through the north Pacific. Still today researchers are debating whether the first inhabitants of the continent arrived from the northwest or the northeast and when this occurred. What may help solve these questions is the great amount of indirect evidence suggesting the first settlers had already developed a maritime culture and very likely a seafaring technology. Implications of considering this statement as valid are that it can shed new light on old problems related to the high mobility of groups, the use of maritime and riverine resources, the location of the first settlement camps near the coast, the transportation of raw materials from very long distances, and different aspects of social organization related to technological development. Bearing these ideas in mind, watercourses should not be considered as obstacles, but on the contrary, as elements of connection.