• DOI:10.1007/BF00974880
• Corpus ID: 161730330

Advances in the archaeology of the Pampa and Patagonia

@article{Orquera1987AdvancesIT,
  title={Advances in the archaeology of the Pampa and Patagonia},
  author={Luis Abel Orquera},
  journal={Journal of World Prehistory},
  year={1987},
  volume={1},
  pages={333-413}
}

• Luis Abel Orquera
• Published 1 December 1987
• History
• Journal of World Prehistory

Archaeological data reveal two distinctive cultural adaptations on the Pampa and Patagonia of Argentina: terrestrial hunter-gatherers in the former and most of the latter region and maritime hunter-gatherers along the southern extreme. Both adaptations were achieved by the end of the fifth millennium B.C. Thereafter, a stable equilibrium was maintained, with a slow drift toward greater emphasis on resources providing the maximum return for the least effort. The high productivity of the Fuegian environment sustained a population 30 times greater than occupied the Pampa and continental Patagonia prior to Araucanian penetration in the sixteenth century A.D. The long-term stability is attributable to the absence of environmental or demographic pressures or encroachments by neighboring groups, which might have made more intensive exploitation of the environment necessary.