"es gente fazil de moverse de una parte a otra". Diversidad en las estrategias de subsistencia y movilidad prehispánicas tardías (Sierras de Córdoba, Argentina)

Abstract

The archaeological study of Sierras of Córdoba Late Pre-Hispanic Period (1100-360 BP, Argentina) assumed during decades that the development of agriculture led to the sudden dependence of crops -mainly maize (Zea mays)- and to the sedentary way of life in pit-house villages. The current information questions this assumption by suggesting that the late pre-Hispanic peoples showed flexible subsistence and mobility patterns where the strategies were switched according to seasonal wild resource availability. Thus, farming was one component in a mixed foraging and cultivation economy where wild animals and plants were intensively exploited. The wide economic niche was accompanied by high residential mobility, co-residential group fission-fusion mechanism and the seasonal switch from farming to foraging wild resources. The model presents an archaeological example where the introduction of crops was followed by a flexible subsistence pattern and not by a full-time farming economy, which serves as a potential comparison to other cases in the world during the food producing transition.