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Ancient South America

04 Aug 1994-
TL;DR: The first peoples: 12,000-6000 BC 5. Settling down: 6000-3500 BC 6. The problem of maize 7. Cultural intensifications in the Andes: 3500-2000 BC 8. Ceramics: their origins and technology 9. The first civilizations: 2000-200 BC 10. Textiles: the high art of South America 11. Metallurgy 12. Regional diversification and development: 200 BC-AD 600 13. Iconographic studies 14. Militaristic and religious movements in the andes: AD 500-900 15. Transport
Abstract: 1. Still a new world 2. A matter of time 3. The physical setting 4. The first peoples: 12,000-6000 BC 5. Settling down: 6000-3500 BC 6. The problem of maize 7. Cultural intensifications in the Andes: 3500-2000 BC 8. Ceramics: their origins and technology 9. The first civilizations: 2000-200 BC 10. Textiles: the high art of South America 11. Metallurgy 12. Regional diversification and development: 200 BC-AD 600 13. Iconographic studies 14. Militaristic and religious movements in the Andes: AD 500-900 15. Transport and trade 16. Kingdoms, chiefdoms and empires: AD 900-1438 17. The sixteenth century 18. Intercontinental movements before Columbus 19. The future of a continent Appendices.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
29 Jan 1993-Science
TL;DR: Geographic expansions are caused by successful innovations, biological or cultural, that favor local growth and movement that have had a powerful effect in determining the present patterns of human genetic geography.
Abstract: Geographic expansions are caused by successful innovations, biological or cultural, that favor local growth and movement. They have had a powerful effect in determining the present patterns of human genetic geography. Modern human populations expanded rapidly across the Earth in the last 100,000 years. At the end of the Paleolithic (10,000 years ago) only a few islands and other areas were unoccupied. The number of inhabitants was then about one thousand times smaller than it is now. Population densities were low throughout the Paleolithic, and random genetic drift was therefore especially effective. Major genetic differences between living human groups must have evolved at that time. Population growths that began afterward, especially with the spread of agriculture, progressively reduced the drift in population and the resulting genetic differentiation. Genetic traces of the expansions that these growths determined are still recognizable.

386 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: There was a relationship between the decline of Amazonian Amerindian populations and the loss of their crop genetic heritage after contact and this relationship was influenced by the crop’s degree of domestication, its life history, the degree of landscape domestication where it was grown, the number of human societies that used it, and its importance to these societies.
Abstract: There may have been 4–5 million people in Amazonia at the time of European contact. These people cultivated or managed at least 138 plant species in 1492. Many of these crop genetic resources were human artifacts that required human intervention for their maintenance, i.e., they were in an advanced state of domestication. Consequently, there was a relationship between the decline of Amazonian Amerindian populations and the loss of their crop genetic heritage after contact. This relationship was influenced by the crop’s degree of domestication, its life history, the degree of landscape domestication where it was grown, the number of human societies that used it, and its importance to these societies. Amazonian crop genetic erosion probably reflects an order of magnitude loss and the losses continue today.

344 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight the inherent resiliencies of natural and cultural systems in the Andes and suggest that these systems contain lessons that could be useful elsewhere, in terms of the traits that allow for the sustainable utilization of dynamic and heterogeneous landscapes.
Abstract: Climate changes occurring during the past several decades in the high elevations of the tropical Andes Mountains have implications for the native plant and animal species, for the ecological integrity of the affected land cover, and for the human-biophysical systems involved. Consequences are also probable for rural inhabitants and their livelihoods, especially for farmers and pastoralists. Biophysical factors have always changed in these mountainous zones; the extent and degree of alteration acting on native and agricultural biodiversity is the concern. Addressing these climate changes is probably within the adaptive capacity of many local land-use systems, unless external socioeconomic or political forces are unsupportive or antagonistic. Suitable programs to provide information, subsidies, or alternatives could be designed. We highlight some of the inherent resiliencies of natural and cultural systems in the Andes and suggest that these systems contain lessons that could be useful elsewhere, in terms of the traits that allow for the sustainable utilization of dynamic and heterogeneous landscapes.

144 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed data generated from a participatory monitoring network of 25 headwater catchments covering three of the major Andean biomes (paramo, jalca and puna) and linked their hydrological responses to main types of human interventions (cultivation, afforestation and grazing).
Abstract: Changes in land use and land cover are major drivers of hydrological alteration in the tropical Andes. However, quantifying their impacts is fraught with difficulties because of the extreme diversity in meteorological boundary conditions, which contrasts strongly with the lack of knowledge about local hydrological processes. Although local studies have reduced data scarcity in certain regions, the complexity of the tropical Andes poses a big challenge to regional hydrological prediction. This study analyses data generated from a participatory monitoring network of 25 headwater catchments covering three of the major Andean biomes (paramo, jalca and puna) and links their hydrological responses to main types of human interventions (cultivation, afforestation and grazing). A paired catchment setup was implemented to evaluate the impacts of change using a ‘trading space-for-time’ approach. Catchments were selected based on regional representativeness and contrasting land use types. Precipitation and discharge have been monitored and analysed at high temporal resolution for a time period between 1 and 5 years. The observed catchment responses clearly reflect the extraordinarily wide spectrum of hydrological processes of the tropical Andes. They range from perennially humid paramos in Ecuador and northern Peru with extremely large specific discharge and baseflows, to highly seasonal, flashy catchments in the drier punas of southern Peru and Bolivia. The impacts of land use are similarly diverse and their magnitudes are a function of catchment properties, original and replacement vegetation and management type. Cultivation and afforestation consistently affect the entire range of discharges, particularly low flows. The impacts of grazing are more variable but have the largest effect on the catchment hydrological regulation. Overall, anthropogenic interventions result in increased streamflow variability and significant reductions in catchment regulation capacity and water yield, irrespective of the hydrological properties of the original biome. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Hydrological Processes. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

112 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
26 Sep 2003-Science
TL;DR: A millennium of metallurgical activity in southern Bolivia is reconstructed using the stratigraphy of metals associated with smelting from lake sediments deposited near the major silver deposit of Cerro Rico de Potosí, providing evidence for a major pre-Incan silver industry.
Abstract: The history of pre-Columbian metallurgy in South America is incomplete because looting of metal artifacts has been pervasive. Here, we reconstruct a millennium of metallurgical activity in southern Bolivia using the stratigraphy of metals associated with smelting (Pb, Sb, Bi, Ag, Sn) from lake sediments deposited near the major silver deposit of Cerro Rico de Potosi. Pronounced metal enrichment events coincide with the terminal stages of Tiwanaku culture (1000 to 1200 A.D.) and Inca through early Colonial times (1400 to 1650 A.D.). The earliest of these events suggests that Cerro Rico ores were actively smelted at a large scale in the Late Intermediate Period, providing evidence for a major pre-Incan silver industry.

104 citations