Quaternary International 363 (2015) 126e133

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Quaternary International
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint

Moving: Hunter-gatherers and the cultural geography of South

America
Luis Alberto Borrero
CONICET-IMHICIHU, Saavedra 15, Piso 5, 1083ACA Buenos Aires, Argentina

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The conditions under which the process of human colonization of South America took place are dis-
Available online 2 April 2014 cussed. The modes of acquisition of environmental knowledge, as a way to construct a cultural geog-
raphy, are also considered. An example concerning the peopling of the forests, particularly in Northwest
Keywords: South America, and the role of plants in the early stages of colonization is also offered. Finally the sig-
Colonization nificance of non-utilitarian items, exchange, and empty lands for our understanding of the process of
South America
peopling is discussed.
Plants
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.
Knowledge

1. Introduction If this explanation is valid, then there is no requirement of major

migrations, be it fast or slow, to explain the displacement of people.
Even when there is no consensus about when and how the On the other hand, practical issues fall within the purview of what
process of peopling of South America started, the available evi- can be called a taphonomic approach to the archaeology of peopling.
dence indicates that ecologically disparate regions of the continent In the first place it includes what I call “Regional taphonomy”, that is
were already occupied around 10,000 BP (Politis, 1999; Dillehay, a concern for the distribution of preservational pockets in the
2000; Aceituno et al., 2013). This was a process that surely landscape and the study of the mechanisms that accumulate and
involved generalist hunter-gatherers with the necessary flexibility preserve materials (Borrero, 2001). The construction of a conti-
to exploit different niches. There is archaeological evidence of nental scale taphonomy is a difficult task, one that can only be
diverse lithic industries, use of large and small terrestrial and delineated at this time. The basic idea is to apply this approach at the
marine vertebrates, and intense exploitation of plant resources same geographical scale at which archaeological projects work. The
(Stahl, 1996; Dillehay, 2000; Ranere and López, 2007). At the same goal is a better definition of the archaeological problems implicated
time, the existence of this variety of adaptations requires a long in the processes of exploration and colonization. A first distinction is
previous history of peopling. No matter how fast was the process between large environmental patches, as can be defined for the Late
of human peopling, several generations of people interacting with Pleistocene (Clapperton, 1993), and a relatively sharp definition of
the environments, and with the local climates, would be needed to the relevant habitats for the first inhabitants within those patches.
be successful in so many regions. These people have to understand These can be defined on the basis of paleoecological research,
the new environment and then transform it as a result of its particularly the paleodistribution of corridors and other biogeo-
exploitation. graphic features. Variation along a number of taphonomically
The variety of habitats exploited ca. 10,000 BP also suggests that relevant properties can be examined. Among other measures, the
the history of the human expansion into South America was not proportion of space covered by different classes of soils constitute a
simple, and that a number of theoretical and practical issues should first approximation to understand differences in bone preservation
be considered. The situation is of course similar to that of the colo- among patches, while charts of the impact of erosion mark differ-
nization of other regions of the world. From a theoretical point of ences in the feasibility of burial and general visibility of the
view what is implied is that the “net diffusion through time was archaeological record. A ranking of past habitats in terms of
simple a by-product of how people lived in landscapes” (Denham archaeologically relevant properties should be the main result. For
et al., 2009: 29), in other words an exaptation (see Gamble, 1994). example, the evidence showing that large parts of the Pacific coast of
South America were affected by the action of tsunamis is relevant for
our assessment of the early exploration of the coastal habitats
E-mail address: laborrero2003@yahoo.com.
(López-Castaño and Cano-Echeverría, 2012: 49).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.03.011
1040-6182/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.
 L.A. Borrero / Quaternary International 363 (2015) 126e133 127

The amount of knowledge of the environment available to the maintained that most of the discovered early archaeological sites
early colonizers can be inferred from the archaeological record. For correspond to the first class. The usual trend toward the study of
example, after examining the evidence from early coastal sites in large sites goes against chances of finding sites related with an
Peru, Dan Sandweiss was able to conclude that “people knew how exploration stage.
to exploit the sea when they first arrived in Western South America, The criteria to find and recognize the first stages in the process
or shortly thereafter” (Sandweiss, 2008: 153). Information to of exploration and colonization of any region are not completely
discuss this at the continental scale is not available, but some cases understood. Generally speaking, archaeological markers that signal
can be explored. The first product of this approach is a re-reading of lack of local knowledge are useful, because they are indicative of
the archaeological record in terms of evidences of knowledge of the partial familiarity with the local geography. In another level, they
environment by the first inhabitants. Only a very crude approxi- also mark the possibility of maladaptations, suggesting that local
mation to these issues can be considered here, where we will extinctions (extirpations) and cultural failures may happen. A
specifically discuss issues related with the archaeology of tropical recent review of the limited evidence for the earlier human remains
forests, of empty lands and the importance of non-utilitarian items. in America showed that earlier people were living a life with “a
significant amount of risk”, and that “stress on Paleoamerican fe-
2. Exploration males makes it unlikely that the population of the first Americans
could have grown rapidly” (Chatters, 2010: 67). The result at a
An ecological model of this process may be useful in selecting supra-regional scale should be spatial discontinuity of the human
the relevant data. I have previously used such a model to organize settlement (Butzer, 1988). Similar situations are modeled by the
the archaeological information from Fuego-Patagonia (Borrero, “point and arrow pattern” proposed by Rockman, in which there is
1989e1990, 1989). This model contemplates the human explora- “movement in which colonizers “stream” from known areas to new
tion of new lands, sometimes followed by colonization and effec- areas, leaving the areas in between uncolonized” (Rockman, 2003:
tive occupation. The reason to call one stage of this process 9). I have reiteratively sustained that early settlers need not have a
“colonization” is that it is difficult to view a group of explorers as perfect adjustment to their environments. For example, the cases of
cut off from their original population (Rogers, 1990). The biological the Holocene sites Túnel and Imiwaia in Tierra del Fuego (Fig. 1) are
viability of those explorers that will allow them to be colonizers is good examples of places where the knowledge of the local re-
based on the fact that ties with their mother group are not shut off. sources appear not to be high for the first inhabitants (Piana et al.,
One of the main properties of this model is that it does not require 2012), a situation that contrasts with later occupations that indicate
constant southward movement, but only a slow multidirectional a detailed knowledge of the local resources (Orquera and Piana,
flow of people. In some way, this is convergent with results of 2009).
human morphological studies that indicate that the peopling pro- The potential markers of the degree of familiarity with the local
cess was “probably the result of multiple discrete expansions of resources are varied, including evidences of sub-optimal use of the
highly variable founder populations” (Delgado-Burbano, 2012: 35). available resources (Muscio, 2001). Exploration refers to the initial
Discussing the early archaeology of North America, Hofman wrote radiation of humans to new empty land (see Borrero, 1994-1995).
that many times the repeated use of specific high-quality lithic Less resistance routes are usually implicated and most of the
sources led to believe that “their long-term pattern of land use settling-in places are probably widely separated. Undoubtedlly, the
should have resulted in lithic distributional patterns suggesting visibility of relevant materials should be low, since sub-optimal
one-way movement, even if people moved in complex patterns” places probably were not reoccupied. The basic criteria to recog-
(Hofman, 2003: 234). nize these sites include chronological precedence, in other words
The mechanisms behind movement probably included the the older sites or older archaeological strata within a region are
gradual extension of hunting ranges, the fission of bands, the search candidates. Application of this criterion is in no way restricted to
for high quality raw material sources, and perhaps also starvation, the Late Pleistocene, but to the older evidence in any given habitat
curiosity, and other causes, principal among them the simple act of or region. The presence of few remains should testify to exploration
living within a variable home range (Anderson and Gillam, 2000; stage occupations, many times at sub-optimal locations. Identifi-
Belovsky, 1987; McGhee, 1997: 125e126). Problems in the home cation of the substrate on which the older occupation rests is also
territory may also be a cause for movement, as recorded in the informative. For example in large sections of northeast Tierra del
classic ethnographic example of the 19th Century Inuit migration Fuego, the older substratum is slightly older than 4000 radiocarbon
(Mary-Rousselière, 2008 [1980]). In general terms, Kelly described years. Any occupation around that age which is resting on that
the situation of expansion as one of “giving up a known environ- substratum is a candidate for an exploration stage representative.
ment for an unknown environment” (Kelly, 1999: 124). It is true Similar situations with dates immediately after deglaciation exist
that hunter-gatherers surely bring with them a variety of strategies along the Andean Cordillera.
and technologies useful for a number of circumstances, but this More specifically, limited redundancy in the early occupations
does not implies that “people never enter unknown territory” and the existence of occupational gaps indicating discontinuity in
(Randall and Hollenbach, 2007: 220). human installation, with cases of alternate use by carnivores and
The availability of hierarchically ordered space, and the struc- humans, are also expected. Trans-generational time frames should
ture of critical resources should have directed people in different be usually implicated. Other expectations include use of abundant
directions, not necessarily filling all ground behind. Places with local raw materials, independently of its quality. Moreover, Franco
fauna that lack anti-predatory behaviors were probably initially studied the criteria to recognize an exploration stage using lithic
favored, even when most published studies suggest that these be- artifacts. She expects tools not to be broken, as they should be
haviors were probably rapidly learned (Berger et al., 2001). A strong expediently made on local rocks. Long-cutting edges should be
negative impact on the success of explorers could be the result of dominant and the few cases of exotic rocks are to be understood in
the prey increasing vigilance or improving its escape abilities. the context of personal gear (Civalero and Franco, 2003; Franco,
For this and other reasons, the resulting distribution of people 2003). All these expectations were met in her analysis of the
should be discontinuous, leaving many empty zones and with some early Patagonian assemblages. Importantly, she concluded that
differences between “settling-in” and “on-the-move” places. The versatility (sensu Nelson, 1991) is adequate for the task, particularly
visibility of those places should be very different, and it can be bifacial tools with high transportability (Kelly, 1988). A number of
128 L.A. Borrero / Quaternary International 363 (2015) 126e133

Fig. 1. South America and location of archaeological sites mentioned in the text. A ¼ Porce Basin, B ¼ Amazon Basin, C ¼ Rio de la Plata Basin, D ¼ Simpson Basin.

studies in different cultural settings of the world recently suggested movements to the Andean region it was possible for the explorers
that levallois technology was adequate for wide ranging move- of South America to remain in the same niche. The available evi-
ments in relatively unknown territory (White and Pettitt, 2011: 75). dence on the distribution of early sites suggests that a variety of
This is relevant because levallois technology was recognized in niches were exploited by the end of the Pleistocene (Roosevelt
South America, and its distribution and significance is just begin- et al., 1996; Borrero, 2004; Aceituno et al., 2013.). Another reason
ning to be understood (Nami, 1992; Franco, 2004; Morello, 2005). for the early explorers not to be specialists is that on all accounts
Generally speaking, the early stages of exploration promote the the dependency on meat, particularly lean meat, known as “Rabbit
conditions under which there is a role for exaptations (Borrero and starvation”, should be avoided by including carbohydrates in the
Borrazzo, 2013). The main reason is that in environments under diet (Speth and Spielmann, 1983). Early explorers should have wide
colonization there are new needs and also unknown or poorly generalist diets, which perhaps should differ markedly from diets
known resources. Hunter-gatherers have ways to deal with unex- of posterior inhabitants. Although the bioanthropological record for
pected situations: for example Binford describes the skills of the early population is meager, these changes should be detectable in
Umialuk among the Nunamiut, who “knows how to use knowledge stable isotopes values, and perhaps in other bioanthropological
and has great knowledge depth regarding the long-term behavior markers (Guichón, 1994; Chatters, 2010).
of animals e what might be called the regularity in their erratic
behavior” (Binford, 1991: 55). This knowledge simply covers the 3. Peopling South America
behavioral range of a known species. It is a different story to deal
with new species for which knowledge is incomplete. Importantly, Early explorers of South America were probably using varied
there is always the “risk of applying preconceived and perhaps criteria in order to rank potentially attractive habitats, in relation
faulty models to a landscape” (Meltzer, 2009: 372). This is one of with their previous knowledge and technium (Arthur, 2009;
the reasons why colonizers of diverse lands probably were not Borrero et al., 2013), which are the basic tools used to transform
specialists. This marks an important difficulty with Kelly and Todd’s the geography. At the landscape scale, habitats are larger units than
model of colonization, which states that the first inhabitants of a those that Optimal Foraging Theory usually treat as a patch,
region has no need to occupy new niches (1988: 235). This can be sometimes similar to what Beaton (1991) called megapatches.
sustained for North America, but only by restricting their Quality and availability of raw materials and other basic subsistence
 L.A. Borrero / Quaternary International 363 (2015) 126e133 129

needs were probably paramount in deciding which places were Holocene logistical camps “from which the hunter gatherers set out
more interesting to be settled, but probably were not the only for other zones of the basin in order to obtain resources and in-
criteria. Minimally, distance to their original populations and the formation“ (Aceituno-Bocanegra and Castillo Espitía, 2005: 5). On
location of neighbors must have been important. For example, the that basis it is claimed that the lower levels of those sites resulted
Pacific coastal habitats are largely recognized as highly productive from explorers occupying an unknown land. Certainly, the presence
and homogeneous along long distances (Dixon, 2001; Erlandson, of stone axes, cutting and scraping tools and quern stones, and the
2001; Kelly, 2003a), and can be considered as a series of mega- low levels of disturbance of the forest support this claim. Some time
patches (sensu Beaton, 1991), where people “simply kept with an for adaptation was required before hunter-gatherers possess the
adaptation that they knew” (Kelly, 2003a: 139). Miotti considered necessary knowledge and skills to modify their environment ac-
the alternative of a process of peopling following the Atlantic coast cording to their needs, which in the case of the Porce valley
of South America which could have also involved homogeneous included increasing diversity of lithic tools and the construction of
megapatches (Miotti, 2003: 163e164). However, there is no evi- stone floorings (Aceituno-Bocanegra and Castillo Espitía, 2005: 6).
dence of strong selectivity for those coastal environments during One problem with forests is that plant-related information and
early times. The borders of patches or megapatches are attractive non-organic resources, such as lithics, may have very low trans-
spots, usually associated with access to a larger set of subsistence ferable value from habitat to habitat (Rockman, 2003: 19). This
resources. On that basis Martino et al. conclude that, “when a should have been especially pressing in environments such as the
resource diminishes in one habitat, they can have quick access to Amazon basin, where lithics are very scarce. Also, the lack of
equivalent or alternative resources from another habitat; and this topographic relief makes navigation more difficult, retarding the
characteristic may favor dispersion” (Martino et al., 2007: 6). This process of learning the intricacies of the landscape (Kelly, 2003b:
suggestion ignores the fact that the process of colonization could 49, 54). Moreover, hunter-gatherers cannot endanger themselves
not be accomplished simply by appropriation of what is available, by collecting and consuming unknown wild plants. An extreme
but that it is mediated by a process of reconnaissance of the existent example is provided by the process of acquiring the knowledge to
resources and the ways of exploiting them. The archaeological re- recognize and eventually process toxic plants, including for
cord is also a record of the increasing knowledge of the environ- example Lonchacarpus nicou which was used to hunt fish in
ment and its resources through time, which in turn is associated ethnographic times (Cárdenas and Politis, 2000: 59). It is expected
with its transformation into a cultural geography. Corridors in NW that this plants are not incorporated early in the process of gath-
South America produced by deglaciation and volcanic activity ering information on the environment, and for some the use of
probably facilitated the access to the forests (López-Castaño and toxic plants for subsistence signals the existence of some kind of
Cano-Echeverría, 2012), a process that necessary implicates suc- stress (O’Connell and Allen, 2012).
cessive changes in the list of exploitable resources. The construc- In tropical forests, we have the important evidence obtained by
tion of habitat implicates both reversible and irreversible changes Gnecco and Mora for the early Holocene (Gnecco and Mora, 1997;
which will have differential archaeological results and signals. Gnecco, 2000). Sites San Isidro and Peña Roja, Colombia were
Discussions about the efficiency of the adaptations exist, but they occupied ca. 10,000-9000 BP, and the archaeological remains sug-
are not usually very useful. For example, Riches (1982) suggested gest a non-especialized extractive technology (Mora and Gnecco,
that individual hunting was more efficient than herd hunting, but 2003: 275), although the stone axes with side notches and the
there is a difficulty in comparing the efficiency of different strate- mortar-like stones of Peña Roja may indicate tree-falling and nut-
gies (Aschero and Martinez, 2001: 236e237), and both classes of cracking respectively (Oliver, 2008: 202), and “finely made stone
strategies may prove adequate or even optimal under different sets hoes” are recorded at several early Holocene sites in NW South
of conditions. The point is that they will produce a quite distinct America (Piperno, 2011a:S460). The inhabitants of Peña Roja
archaeological signal on the landscape and a different effect on the arrived before 9000 BP within a rain forest context. Some changes
prey population. In the first place, efficient strategies are more through time were recorded, including reductions in the abun-
visible, simply because they are associated with higher redundancy dance of charcoal “concomitant with the introduction of squashes
in the occupation. (Cucurbita spp.)” (Mora and Gnecco, 2003: 276). Several species of
palms with possible economic value are also recorded. The evi-
3.1. Forests dence at San Isidro, located at w1600 m asl, clearly indicates that
some previous knowledge of the area existed. More than 65000
More specific examples are provided by the available informa- lithic artifacts were found, suggesting that this place was redun-
tion for the exploration of the tropical forests of Colombia or Brazil. dantly used. The variety of raw materials, some of them from
The timing of the early exploration of forests is an issue that goes distant sources, indicates that formal exploration took place before
beyond the case of South America. The Amazonian evidence runs the intense utilization of that place. In that sense, exploitation of
counter to the principle asserting that only the possession of metal “the very small, buried obsidian flows in the valley of Popayán/
tools allows humans to colonize forested environments (see Politis underscores/. a detailed territorial knowledge” (Gnecco, 2003a:
and Gamble, 1994). However, one thing is to recognize that humans 18). There is not a well preserved faunal record, but there are
are fully capable of coping with forested environments, and fascinating evidences of the consumption of a variety of plants e
another to maintain that the process of expansion to the forests was “charred seeds of Persea spp. and Erythrina and starch grains from
without difficulties. It was shown that “Despite the high diversity of Xanthosoma, Ipomea, Manihot and Maranta cf. arundinacea”
species ‘useful’ plants are few” (Aceituno-Bocanegra and Castillo (Aceituno et al., 2013: 27) e a list that can also be seen as an
Espitía, 2005: 4). Quoting archaeological observations by Gnecco indication of a previous history of exploration of the local resources
and ethnoarchaeological evidence provided by Politis, Scheinsohn (Ichikawa et al., 2011). In this context, it is interesting to propose,
sustains that “some researchers support the idea that. people like Mora and Gnecco do, that at sites such as these “foragers
created their own patches of resources in order to increase their promoted the artificial concentration of useful plants across their
effectiveness in the environment” (Scheinsohn, 2003: 345). This is territory. This farming-like behavior focused on species that
true in general, of course, but it is probably not something that early required little planting or tending” (Mora and Gnecco, 2003: 282).
explorers achieve immediately. On the basis of evidence collected However, evidence in support of this is difficult to find. The pres-
at the Porce valley, Colombia, it was sustained the existence of early ence of pioneer species like Plantago and Trema in a context of
130 L.A. Borrero / Quaternary International 363 (2015) 126e133

mature primary forest indicates human disturbance but, as the antiquity of these adaptations (Gragson, 1993). Also, the evi-
admitted by Gnecco, “I cannot say whether this open space was dence for fires in the Amazon basin during much of the Holocene
naturally or humanly created” (Gnecco, 2003a: 14). There are also (Saldarriaga and Clark, 1986; Piperno, 1995), and for processes of
other evidences of early Holocene habitat transformation at the deforestation associated with them (Bray, 1995), suggests that hu-
tropical forests of northwest Colombia (Gnecco and Aceituno, man management existed since early times (Stahl, 1996: 114). All
2006: 93). Since the presence of humans is normally associated these processes, however, must be adequately documented in
with disturbance (Odling-Smee et al., 2003), the evidences just relation with specific archaeological populations, acknowledging
presented are not necessary an indication of particularly complex the existence of a previous process of humans entering a new
interactions with the environment. environment with new resources, getting used to them, and finally
It is also argued that the presence of Virola in the pollen sample, learning the tactics associated with their management. David Rin-
which today is allopatric to the rest of the plants recorded at San dos’ coevolutionary theory might be relevant here, as it requires
Isidro, may have been transported from their original habitat substantial time for the establishment of coevolutionary relation-
(Gnecco, 2003a: 14). This is an expected situation for the Pleisto- ships between humans and plants (Rindos, 1984; Gnecco, 2000:
ceneeHolocene Transition times under the model of coevolu- 130; Gnecco and Aceituno, 2006: 92). However, Piperno does not
tionary equilibrium (Graham and Lundelius, 1984), that predicts the believe that the protracted mutualism involved in the theory of
existence of non-analog environments for the Late Pleistocene (see Rindos can be defended, and instead she sustains that “long periods
Gnecco, 2003b: 69). of experimentation with a fairly large and diverse set of species,
The situation is slightly different for the Amazon basin. Beyond especially those with similar life history and nutritional qualities,
eating plants and insects, humans hunted a variety of animals would not occur before the establishment of productive farming
including monkeys, peccaries, tapirs, and others and they are systems” (Piperno, 2006: 160). Whatever the outcome of these
recorded in the archaeological record (Roosevelt et al., 1996; Politis, alternative positions, what is needed is a better knowledge of the
1996a, 2001). These were all new species for foragers coming from point at which human populations display what Smith (2001) calls
non-forested habitats. Again, the ethology and distribution of these low-level food production systems. In order to achieve this we will
animals was to be learned in order to make adequate subsistence also need well preserved faunal data from sites in forest contexts
choices. Closer to the Atlantic coast, at Lagoa Santa, studies of the (see Piperno, 2006). However, what the existent archaeological
oral health of early Holocene human populations showed that record shows is “slowly unwinding reciprocal plant/human in-
during the early Holocene the diet was probably based on wild teractions” (Piperno, 2011a: S467).
tubers and fruits (Da Gloria and Larsen, 2014). That early hunter- Summing up, it is now generally accepted that the ranking of the
gatherers were advanced in the process of managing plant re- forests as habitat for hunter-gatherers is not necessarily low (Politis
sources at the beginning of the Holocene is an interesting possi- and Gamble, 1994; Denham et al., 2009). Moreover, Piperno
bility, but it is not yet clear that they were the first explorers of emphasized that “the single most important factor driving subsis-
those regions. Recent studies suggest that there is a strong possi- tence changes after the close of the Pleistocene probably was the
bility that the first hunter-gatherers in South America already had dramatic decline in foraging return rates associated with the
bottle gourds, probably used as containers (Erikson et al., 2005; demise of glacial-period resources and expansion of forests into
Piperno, 2011a) and possibly other economically important plants regions where open land vegetation had prevailed during glacial
(Piperno, 2006). Moreover, it is clear that the process of humanizing times” (Piperno, 2006: 152), which clearly offers an environmental
the South American environments began with the first explorers context under which management of plants was to be expected.
(Gnecco and Aceituno, 2006: 103), but it probably took some time Taking a global point of view on hunter-gatherers living in forests, it
to significantly transform them, before some demographic success is possible to say that they were able to rapidly “explore and take
was achieved. Importantly, in terms of the anthropic trans- advantage of local forest resources” (Mercader, 2003: 17), in other
formation of forested patches some knowledge is required to select words “to live there”. However, by taking a closer look it becomes
the locations which are attractive enough to be settled and trans- clear that probably it took several generations of people to adapt to
formed. It probably took much travel to find the areas where the tropical forests of Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil. Research in
burning of the forest is productive, returning was an interesting the Northwest of South America, plus a series of studies based on
option, and human installation was desirable. In other words, the phytoliths are leading this archaeological quest. It is clear that a
geography needs to be known before its systematic transformation process of plant resource management was identified at the Pleis-
fully starts. toceneeHolocene Transition in South America (Stahl, 1996; Gnecco,
What all this evidence clearly indicates, finding also strong 2000; Piperno and Stothert, 2003; Dillehay et al., 2007; Piperno,
support in the ethnoarchaeological work of Politis among the 2011b) and I believe that the process will be found to be not only
Nukak of Colombia, who unintentionally create patches of edible more complex, but also older.
plants on abandoned camps (Politis and Gamble, 1994; Politis,
1996a, 1996b, 2007), is that the exploitation of the forest environ- 3.2. Non-utilitarian items and exchange
ments started very early (Roosevelt et al., 1996; Oliver, 2001; Politis,
2001). Accordingly, there is a good basis to presume that trans- A few places in South America display early evidence of non-
formations of the forest are also early. This is independent of the utilitarian artifacts. It is not yet clear if these are associated with
fact that patches of edible plants can also be created in absence of an exploratory stage or if they signal the time when effective
human occupation (Cárdenas and Politis, 2000: 87e88). The mere colonization was taking place. The examples recorded below might
presence of humans triggers habitat transformations (Lyman, 1995; represent both situations. The examples include the early evidences
Odling-Smee et al., 2003). The early presence of arrowroot (Mar- of the use of ochre in the Pampas, Argentina (Scalise and Prado,
anta sp.) (Piperno, 1995), bottle gourd (Erikson et al., 2005), rhy- 2006), a bone artifact with incisions at Cueva del Medio, Chile
zomes of Calathea allouia (Stothert et al., 2003; Piperno, 2009) and (Nami, 1994: 159), and a mastodon tusk with geometric designs at
other plants in different places of South America (Piperno and Taguatagua 2, Chile (Nuñez et al., 1994). Also, a possible pendant on
Pearsall, 1998) is central in this discussion. Recently acquired a Glossotherium osteoderm at Santa Elina, Brazil (Vilhena Vialou,
knowledge about the human ways of exploiting forest resources 1997-1998) and three perforated Mylodon osteoderms at Cueva
derived from evolutionary ecology studies supports a discussion of de los Chingues, Chile (Martin, 2013) must be considered. It is not
 L.A. Borrero / Quaternary International 363 (2015) 126e133 131

yet clear to what point the selection of sites to live was associated that the area was probably uninhabited most of the time. On the
with non-utilitarian considerations, but the available evidence other hand, work by Méndez et al. (2013) in Aysén, Chile noted the
establish that other concerns must be also taken into account. This extremely low frequencies of archaeological remains in the Simp-
information is interesting because at some point the so-called son basin. They entertained the idea of an area demarcating a limit
“non-utilitarian mobility” (Whallon, 2006) becomes important as between populations, but recognized that the evidence is insuffi-
a result of proto-exchange webs. The degree to which these systems cient to discuss it. The implications of very low population densities
developed into full exchange systems is open to question. The ev- are clear. In both examples, archaeologists were at odds to explain
idence to discuss this in depth is rarely published. In the few cases the absence of an archaeological signal. In the end, it probably
in which it is available, it points toward a low level of interaction marks the existence of very few people with too much available
between distant populations. A rarely considered alternative is that land. As a result, it needs to be accepted that there are many places
prehistoric populations were scattered and not necessarily very which were populated very late during the Holocene, such as many
interconnected. It is becoming more important to discuss in- dead-end valleys near the Patagonian Cordillera (Borrero, 2004;
teractions during early times on the basis of specific archaeological Espinosa et al., 2009). In this context we are reminded of the
markers, and I will present two examples. One example is provided Nukak conceptualization of space, in which there are places which
by evidence recovered at site QJ-280 on south coastal Peru, dated are named but were not effectively occupied (Politis et al., 2003:18;
between about 11,100 and 10,000 BP. These include tools and debris Politis, 2007). In the case of some of the unoccupied lands by the
on petrified wood from a source located at least 20 km in the Nukak, Politis notes that, “It is not clear if these unoccupied areas
interior, an obsidian bifacial tool and debris from the Alca source, are the product of recent demographic decline or are simply the
located between 2720 and 5165 masl, and seeds of Opuntia cf. ficus- consequence of the traditional Nukak mode of land occupation”
indica from environments above 2400 masl (Sandweiss et al., 1998; (Politis, 2006: 41). Some are places which the Nukak “have never or
Sandweiss and Rademaker, 2011: 284e286). Even if the mode of seldom actually visited” (Politis, 2006: 26). It is clear that the
acquisition is not clear, the evidence clearly show the interaction conceptualization of space which is not personally known exists
between the highlands and the Peruvian coast during the Pleisto- among hunter-gatherers and we have no major reasons to think
ceneeHolocene Transition. These results indicate a detailed that things were too different at the end of the Pleistocene. On the
knowledge of resources that were available on a variety of envi- contrary, all the available evidence for early settlers of South
ronments at different altitudes above the ocean. America indicates very low demographies. In other words, it is
Another example is offered by the archaeology of the Río de La suggested here that the cultural geography of the early inhabitants
Plata basin. In this case stone tool assemblages including Fell Cave of South America included extensive unoccupied lands, which were
projectile points dated between 11,000 and 10,000 BP were found rarely visited, and that only with the passing of time was some
in the Argentine pampas (Flegenheimer, 1986) and at Urupez, continuity in the distribution of settlement achieved.
Uruguay dated between 10,600 and 11,600 BP (Meneghin, 2004;
Nami, 2007, 2013). Those points were also found on surface con-
4. Conclusions
texts in both Argentina and Uruguay (Castiñeira et al., 2011). The
same raw material was used for some tools, including Fell Cave
The process of the peopling of South America was probably slow
projectile points, at both sides of the Rio de la Plata, and according
and complex. Very little is known of the early stages of appropri-
to Flegenheimer et al. (2003) it was collected in Uruguay. Then,
ation of the land, and adequate methodologies to recognize them
interaction across what is today the Río de La Plata basin occurred
should be refined. Sites attributable to an exploration stage are
at such an early time, only that then it was a small river, known as
elusive, but not unknown, as the examples from Tierra del Fuego
Paleo-Paraná (Bracco et al., 2011). Also, the circulation during the
(Piana et al., 2012), Colombia (Aceituno-Bocanegra and Castillo
PleistoceneeHolocene Transition of translucid rocks used for pro-
Espitía, 2005), or the Andean mountains (Gil et al., 2011) show. It
jectile points over distances 140e170 km was recorded (Suárez,
was perhaps noted that I have not relied exclusively on Late Pleis-
2011: 202). This panorama indicates that a detailed knowledge of
tocene information or examples to discuss the peopling of South
the regional environment was probably in place ca. 10,000 BP
America. This results from the conviction that it is only by using the
(Flegenheimer et al., 2003: 61). Both examples, suggest that the
full archaeological record that we are going to understand this
process of exploration of those sectors of the Pacific and Atlantic
process. Not only there are many places which were for the first
coast respectively were known for quite some time before these
time visited by humans during the Holocene, but also some that
well recorded interactions took place.
were visited in earlier times were abandoned after that initial
occupation and perhaps forgotten. This is a condition that opens
3.3. Empty lands
the possibility of successive instances of colonization of the same
lands (Franco, 2004).
Other evidence of the long processes involved in colonization is
the existence of lands which were not used at all, or only slightly
used during the Holocene. We are not talking about places that lack Acknowledgements
systematic research, such as parts of the Caribbean lowlands of
Colombia (Aceituno et al., 2013). Instead, we are referring to areas I want to thank the editors of this volume for their invitation to
that in spite of those efforts are not characterized by an abundant contribute, and to Cecilia Pallo for her help with the map.
archaeological record. We must never forget that South America
probably was never fully saturated with people, an important
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