Stable isotope analysis of human bone and ethnohistoric subsistence patterns in Tierra del Fuego

• Autores: Yesner, David; Figuerero Torres, María José; Guichon, Ricardo; Borrero, Luis Alberto
• Año de publicación: 2003
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Materia: Stable Isotopes; Tierra del Fuego; Ethnohistory; Archaeology
• Institución: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

Ethnohistoric records from Tierra del Fuego suggest that precontact Fuegians could be subdivided into three major groups: the Yamana, maritime hunter-gatherers of the Beagle Channel and islands to the south; the Selk’nam, terrestrial hunter-gatherers of southernmost Patagonia; and the Haush, a little-known group that seems to have combined elements of both Yamana and Selk’nam lifeways. However, the observed ethnographic patterns reflect societies whose way of life was significantly altered by European contact, habitat alteration, and exploitation of some of the key resources upon which Fuegian peoples were historically dependent. To test the linkage between ethnohistorically recorded subsistence patterns and prehistoric lifeways in the region, stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes were assayed from human burials that date within the last 1500 years before European contact. Isotopic analyses substantially confirm the ethnohistorically documented patterns, but also reveal some anomalies, such as Yamana populations who may have been more dependent on terrestrial resources (i.e., guanaco). Data from the Haush region suggest primary dependence on marine resources, like the Yamana, while the Selk’nam demonstrate limited use of such resources. Stable isotopic analysis can thus be used to test hypotheses concerning the validity of archaeological and ethnohistoric data.
Fil: Yesner, David. University Of Alaska; Estados Unidos
Fil: Figuerero Torres, María José. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo; Argentina
Fil: Guichon, Ricardo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Museo Etnográfico "Juan B. Ambrosetti"; Argentina
Fil: Borrero, Luis Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Historia y Ciencias Humanas; Argentina