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CAMELIDS IN THE ATACAMA DESERT: HUSBANDRY, PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, AND CONSUMPTION OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY PRODUCTS, AND IMAGES THROUGH TIME (CA. 3725-490 CAL. BP)
CAMÉLIDOS EN EL DESIERTO DE ATACAMA: CRIANZA, PRODUCCIÓN, DISTRIBUCIÓN Y CONSUMO DE PRODUCTOS PRIMARIOS, SECUNDARIOS E IMÁGENES A TRAVÉS DEL TIEMPO (CA. 3725-490 CAL. AP)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4067/s0717-73562026000100407
Daniela Valenzuela
, Victoria Castro, Paul Szpak, Bárbara Cases, Carolina Guzmán, Michelle Salgado, José M. Capriles, Adrián Oyaneder, Andrés S. Romano, Vivien G. Standen, Indira Montt and Calogero M. Santoro
Key words: Substantive economy, camelids, marine fishing-hunter-gatherers, Atacama Desert, Andes.
Abstract
In this article, we synthesize and discuss pre-Hispanic evidence of the role played by camelids in the economies (i.e., the production, distribution, and consumption of camelid goods and services) of non-pastoralist societies along the Pacific coast and coastal valleys of the Atacama Desert (18º-19ºS, 0-2,000 masl). Over the temporal span considered (3725-490 cal. BP), subsistence was based on marine fishing, hunting, and gathering, later complemented by horticulture. From a substantivist economic perspective, we integrated multiple lines of evidence from funerary and domestic contexts, including fibers, textiles, bones, hides, camelid skeletal elements, and iconography on portable objects and rock art. Our results indicate that, although camelids were not a primary dietary source of protein, they were consumed in different ways: productive consumption (mainly textile production and use as pack animals), ritual consumption (offerings of camelid remains), and visual consumption (rock art and geoglyphs). Local textile production was sourced mainly from highland camelid fibers, however from ca. 2500 cal. BP onward, small-scale husbandry was established in the lowlands specifically oriented toward fiber production. Camelid imagery became increasingly integrated into
the local material culture by lowland populations constituting a primary expression of their identity. What we initially defined as productive, visual, and ritual consumption is better understood as productive dimensions of consumption, embedded within an ontological and relational system whose ultimate purpose was to sustain life.
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