historical and archaeological analysis of the data currently available on the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon relativized from the beginning the classification of these regions makes the quintessential example of "simple tropical cultures" (Steward, 1948) and classifications on the basis of ecological adaptation of the companies alleged inter river (such as those of Meggers, 1971, taken up by Roosevelt, 1980), understanding these regions as areas not suited to complex social developments. This double reading of the past leads to a large number of investigators to question to the model of agriculture traveling on slash and burn "(often cited as the typical lifestyle of high - Amazon) that would largely be the combined effect of a strategy for survival of indigenous societies against the persecutions of the Western world and the introduction of steel tools to facilitate large-scale deforestation. The review of current data also shows that the study area is confined in a broad regional area, where you should stress not only contacts with the Andean area in the broad sense of the word, but also the middle and lower Amazon.
Archaeological data currently available in the Upper Amazon to the north of the Maranon possible to reconstruct a scenario of two major pre-Columbian times. The first period from the fourth millennium BC to the eighth century AD has a close cultural and commercial links between the Andean region, the Pacific Coast and the Upper Amazon. The second period from the eighth century AD to the English period is characterized by the disappearance of the previous system and a cultural break between the Andes and the Upper Amazon, and across the Amazon river and river inter. Cultural and social characteristics and reasons for discrepancy between the two periods are not known why this should be the current priority.
Critics and Proposal:
The prehistory of the Upper Amazon is still poorly understood and subject of much speculation. They face two main positions, the first position holds that the origin of certain cultural phenomena, the Andes, ancestral, such as the birth of agriculture or the appearance of the Chavin horizon in Peru should be investigated in the rainforest (eg Lathrap 1970) The other position says prominence is of the of the Andes or the Pacific Coast in prehistoric social processes (eg Burger 1995). The purpose of these two currents can be issued three reserves:
1. archaeological and paleoenvironmental data are insufficient.
2. Most researchers use consciously or unconsciously, but always strictly social or ecological models borrowed from other periods and other regions.
3. researchers Nor does it consider the most recent or the weight of the differential conservancies, probably giving an incomplete picture of the past Amazon and its diversity.
usually divides the history of pre-Columbian Ecuador into three periods: the Formative period (4500 BC - 300 BC) is marked by the first agro-pottery companies, Regional Development (300 a. C. - 500 AD), characterized by the diversification of cultures, and the period of integration (500d.C.-1532 AD) which is a trend towards cultural homogenization that culminated with the Inca conquest.
For some researchers, especially J. Guffroy who worked for a long time in southern Ecuador and northern Peru (Guffroy, 1995, 2004) - is worth insisting on the continuity between the Formative and Regional Development and the break that occurs at the beginning of the period of integration. In this sense, the prehistory of southern Ecuador have met two great socio-cultural development, the first with the Formative and Regional Development, and the second integration period.
At first, there is a strong integration between the Pacific coast el altiplano andino y las vertientes orientales de los Andes, lo que habría dado origen a un desarrollo relevante y precoz del Ecuador, aunque fuertemente desigual. Jean Guffroy llega a plantear la hipótesis según la cual el origen de la cultura Catamayo A (primera cultura formativa del extremo sur de los Andes ecuatorianos) proviene de la Amazonía (Guffroy et al., 1987:236). Esta hipótesis puede comprobarse con el descubrimiento hecho en 2002 de una nueva cultura agroalfarera en la ceja de montaña oriental del sur del Ecuador. Las fechas C14 asociadas a este material la sitúan como una de las manifestaciones culturales más antiguas de toda la región, por lo que pudiera ser precursora en muchos aspectos del Horizonte peruano de Chavin (Valdez et al., 2005). If this is the case, it presents the possibility that the Upper Amazon to the north of the Maranon has played a role in the foreground.
The second stage is characterized by a rupture and cultural restructuring. It seems that the origin of several current Amerindian populations in this period. In Loja, in the southern Ecuadorian Andes, this period would be marked by the arrival of groups belonging to the set-Candoa Jibaro language from the Amazon (Guffroy et al., 1987; Guffroy, 2004).
This scenario highlights the relationships the Upper Amazon. I think that this hypothesis can be applied to the Ecuadorian Amazon. Undoubtedly this is an imperfect and hypothetical scenario. Enunciate the archaeological data:
First Period:
During the first period, from the Formative through the Regional Development (3500-300 BC), the cultures of the Upper Amazon would be part of an integrated system that clearly to the Northern and Central Andes (Lathrop, 1970, Myers, Dean, 1999; DeBoer, 2003). Relatively early origin and role are still poorly understood and are the subject of much speculation.
Thus, the early presence of maize (from 4000 BC to 2700 BC, depending on the region) has been supported by several researchers (Bush et al., 1989, Mora et al., 1991), but still hypothetical even more considering the size and number of grains of this ancient corn, known only by some Pollens and phytoliths, have not yet been defined.
What little is known of the iconography is characterized by the presence of dualism and in one case by the association cat / snake / bird of prey, an association will be found along the Andean developments, but disappear eastern lands in the following period. Formative poorly known, it nevertheless seems relatively old in certain areas (Valdez et al., 2005), suggesting the existence of a socio-cultural development at least as early as in the Andes and the Pacific coast. The lack of field research can not give an accurate picture of social developments. However, the Formative ceramic assemblages and Regional Development, although very different, know typical shapes such as bottles with stirrup (Guffroy, et al 2003, Valdez et al., 2005; Porras, 1978; Shady Solis, 1987), bottle-neck and handle asymmetric bridge (Fung, 1981, Myers et al., 1999; Morales Chocano, 1998; Porras, 1987; Ravines, 1981), bowls, sometimes decorated with great care (slip, fine incisions, excisions, Saulieu, 2006) and pots (Porras, 1979; DeBoer et al., 1977). If there are indeed cultural renewal and uneven development, ceramic assemblages remain largely in the logic started in the Formative, since they are evidence of interactions or exchanges with the Andes and the Pacific. In the second part of this first period, the company Ecuadorian Amazon foothills of the monumental architecture produced (in Zamora, Upano, Puyo) comparable to that of other Andean regions. In the Amazon, settlement patterns are still very poorly understood : One of the only places domestic apparently shows a stratigraphy of 90 cm (Athens, 1986), suggesting that these populations were not necessarily made up of growers and indigenous people traveling today (Petersen et al., 2001).
Second Period:
The second stage is the collapse of the previous system and an accentuation of cultural differences in the Andes. This stress was caused by a part in human and other adaptations in the cultural composition of the Upper Amazon is known in modern times through sources ethnohistoric and ethnographic. It is in this period that the Upper Amazon is Amazonis, to put it in some way to make a typical so marked by the preeminence of cultural forms mood (as described Descola, 2005) and socially headless. These lead to two scenarios.
The first observation, the rapid expansion of a ceramic horizon, called Rebar, in areas not directly in contact with the major axis formed by the Napo river, the Maranon, Ucayali and Huallaga. This horizon is characterized by a relatively coarse paste pottery decoration which consists of the basic use of superimposed clay bands in the neck and shoulder of the vessels. From a material standpoint, our hypothesis rests on the fact that from the seventh and eighth centuries is found in many regions (eg in the Upano, cf. Rostain 1999-ay 1999-b, Loja, cf. Guffroy 2004):
- The disappearance of the most typical (especially the bottles with or without handle, with one or more necks) and ceramic traditions of the previous period.
- A superficial homogenization decorative modes corrugated favor decorations, while the local particularities seem important.
- The disappearance of monumental architecture.
- a sharp decline in long-range interactions, both in terms of exotic materials (Spondylus, turquoise) as a stylistic and ideological traits. (Rostain, 1999-a; Guffroy, 1995, 2004, Guillaume, Guffroy, Valdez, Saulieu, 2003).
settlement patterns, suggest that social structures seem more parcels and temporary during earlier phases, which corresponds fairly well to what is known of the practices of indigenous people belonging to linguistic group current jíbaro (slash and burn horticulturalists, Acephalous societies).
The other scenario is given, displays along navigable rivers and in certain segments of the Andean slopes (valley of the cheek), the provision of complex social systems founded on trade. Polychrome Horizon from floodplains colonizes the Lower Amazon, to the tenth and eleventh centuries, the Napo (Evans and Meggers, 1968) and a part of the Maranon to the Putumayo, and articulates with the Panzaleo-Cosanga-Píllaro on the Andean Ridge.
ethnohistoric data allow us to recognize the various ethnic groups and often distant origin, which are complex and hierarchical social performances, specialized production systems (particularly gold, ceramics and cotton fabrics) . The exchanges over long distances are concentrated in some major axes formed by the Napo, Maranon, Ucayali and Huallaga (salt, curare, gold, cottonseed oil, turtle, etc..) and controlled by these populations seem to have a strong inclination for navigation and river habitat.
Conclusion:
If understanding of the two periods has yet to be refined, as proposed from serious questions about reasons for the change. Clearly this is not an ecological determinism, since in the Formative and Regional Development, the upper Amazon would have developed in symbiosis with the Andes and the coast Pacific. In our case, we would be tempted by the hypothesis that this would have corresponded to a major reorientation in the types of social developments in this humid tropical region, for reasons still mysterious, but perhaps in part linked to large movements pobacionales. Philippe Descola (2005) shows that the perception of the environment that current populations are high due to schemes Amazon animists. This feature differentiates very clearly the areas of the greatest civilizations known historically, especially in the Andes. Therefore we support the thinking that has not always been so, and that before the big departure from the principle Integration of the period, the societies of the Upper Amazon in large part functioned differently, in a way that allowed them just to fit in perfectly with the Andean and coastal societies. From there to think that they were societies that worked mainly with analog schemes, there is only one step.
Article by French archaeologist Geoffroy de Saulieu
Friday, February 16, 2007
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