A Prehistory of South America by Jerry D. Moore

Author:Jerry D. Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-60732-333-4
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Published: 2014-07-03T04:00:00+00:00

These chronological limits are intentionally loose, providing more of a temporal target than firmly dated beginnings and ends. The archaeological cases discussed were chosen to include often overlooked examples. What follows is a brief tour of the continent, spanning from the southernmost tip of Tierra del Fuego to the northernmost tropical zones of South America, and ranging from highly mobile and sedentary hunters and gatherers to examples of agrarian and non-agrarian chiefdoms, each of which flourished in a particular region.

A final note: although the different cultural patterns discussed in this chapter were “regional” in scope, this does not imply that they were backward. If a culture’s artistic production is one measure of its achievement, then societies like Majaoara and the Nasca created some of the most sophisticated objects made in all of human history. If the ability to muster human labor to create public works is an indirect measure of social achievement, then the vast causeways of the Venezuelan llanos, the aquaculture networks of Marajó, and the mysterious lines of Nazca are constructed testaments of ancient achievement. Finally, if the ability of societies to endure and thrive is an index of the human spirit, then we see the archaeological evidence of that human spirit across the length of South America, from the Orinoco to Cape Horn.

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