Violence in hunters, fishermen, and gatherers of the Chinchorro culture: Archaic societies of the Atacama Desert (10,000-4,000 cal yr BP).

Abstract

This article addresses evidence of violence imbedded in both soft and hard tissues from early populations of hunters, fishermen, and gatherers, known as the Chinchorro culture, who lived between 10,000 and 4,000 cal yr BP, along the coast of the Atacama Desert, one of the driest environments on Earth. Our study is aimed to test two hypotheses (a) that interactions and violent behaviors increased through time as population density and social complexity augmented; and (b) that violence was more prevalent between local Chinchorro groups and groups from other inland locations. Two lines of data were analyzed: (1) bioarchaeology, through the quantification of physical traces of interpersonal violence in skeletons and mummies from a sample of 136 adult individuals and, (2) isotopic chemical analysis (strontium) of individuals with traces of trauma in order to determine their local or foreign origin. Violence among Chinchorro populations was ubiquitous and remained invariant over time, with a remarkable skew to male (about 25% above female across the complete sample). Moreover, the chemical signature of individuals with traces of violence was not of foreign origin. The violence exerted by the Chinchorro groups was not related to increased population size, nor social complexity and was mostly restricted to individuals coming from the same coastal habitat. That is, our data suggest that violence was constant across the Archaic period among the Chinchorro, implying that violent behavior was part of the sociocultural repertory of these populations, likely associated to mechanisms to resolve conflicts and social tensions.