Archaeology of the Past and Future in the Amazon

Abstract

Until the end of the 20th century, the established hypotheses in South American archaeology divided the continent into four major cultural areas, which would also correspond to evolutionary stages: (1) the Central Andes, the supposed cradle of civilizations, structured religion, and the state; (2) the Circum-Caribbean, where forms of political control and religion would be less structured than in the Central Andes; (3) the Tropical Forest, including areas of the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest—part of the so-called “lowlands” east of the Andes—marked by the presence of populations living in autonomous villages with a certain mobility and practicing shifting agriculture; and, finally, (4) Marginal Peoples, present in different areas of the lowlands, characterized by the absence of permanent agriculture, high mobility, low population density, and the economic importance of hunting and gathering. According to this scheme, the supposed absence of permanent, dense, long-term settlements in the Tropical Forest would be the result of limiting environmental factors—poor soils or lack of animal protein—that would prevent demographic growth.