Facing change through diversity : Resilience and diversification of plant management strategies during the mid to late holocene transition at the monte castelo shellmound, sw amazonia
Furquim, Laura P. (University of São Paulo)
Watling, Jennifer G (University of São Paulo)
Hilbert, Lautaro Maximiliam (University of São Paulo)
Shock, Myrtle P. (Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará)
Prestes-Carneiro, Gabriela (Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará)
Calo, Cristina Marilin (University of São Paulo)
Py-Daniel, Anne Rapp (Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará)
Brandão, Kelly (University of São Paulo)
Pugliese, Francisco (University of São Paulo)
Zimpel, Carlos Augusto (Federal University of Rondônia)
da Silva, Carlos Augusto (Federal University of the Amazon)
Neves, Eduardo G. (University of São Paulo)

Date:	2021
Abstract:	Recent advances in the archaeology of lowland South America are furthering our understanding of the Holocene development of plant cultivation and domestication, cultural niche construction, and relationships between environmental changes and cultural strategies of food production. This article offers new data on plant and landscape management and mobility in Southwestern Amazonia during a period of environmental change at the Middle to Late Holocene transition, based on archaeobotanical analysis of the Monte Castelo shellmound, occupied between 6000 and 650 yr BP and located in a modern, seasonally flooded savanna-forest mosaic. Through diachronic comparisons of carbonized plant remains, phytoliths, and starch grains, we construct an ecology of resource use and explore its implications for the long-term history of landscape formation, resource management practices, and mobility. We show how, despite important changes visible in the archaeological record of the shellmound during this period, there persisted an ancient, local, and resilient pattern of plant management which implies a degree of stability in both subsistence and settlement patterns over the last 6000 years. This pattern is characterized by management practices that relied on increasingly diversified, rather than intensive, food production systems. Our findings have important implications in debates regarding the history of settlement permanence, population growth, and carrying capacity in the Amazon basin.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Agriculture ; Amazonian archaeology ; Archaeobotany ; Carrying capacity ; Cultural niche ; Mobility patterns ; Pale-oenvironment ; Resilience ; Shellmounds ; Paleoenvironment ; SDG 2 - Zero Hunger ; SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals ; SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
Published in:	Quaternary, Vol. 4, Issue 1 (March 2021) , art. 8, ISSN 2571-550X

DOI: 10.3390/quat4010008

26 p, 12.8 MB

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