2.16 - The Paleoindian and Archaic of Central and South America

Summary

The term “Paleoindian” refers to the short period of North American prehistory when people’s subsistence, at the end of the Pleistocene, was based on the hunting of megafauna like mammoths and mastodons. “Archaic” refers to generalised hunter-gatherers whose subsistence depended on modern fauna and a wide range of plants. This classification does not apply to Central and South American contexts. The full variability of Pleistocene and Holocene hunter-gatherer societies is not embraced by these concepts. It is better to refer to the process of population of Central and South America using the term “dispersal” in order to denote the spreading out of individuals or groups which filled up the available vacant habitat, and the term “colonisation” for the major extension of a population habitat or range that includes an established occupation of areas previously unoccupied or occupied.

There is no clear pattern for inferring a north–south route of dispersal and colonisation from Central America into South America. On the contrary, the first colonisers seem to have followed many routes, and for that reason the processes of dispersal and colonisation of the different regions were not necessarily connected. This can be seen in the uneven distribution of some characteristic markers of early human dispersal such as, for example, the distribution of Fish-tail projectile points throughout the continent. Although most of the dates are in the range of 12,000 to 9000 cal bce, a north–south cline is not observed. Moreover, the analysis of the few early human skeletal remains has shown two important issues: first, by 8000 cal bce different regional populations already existed; and second, more than one stock migrated into the continent. This does not mean that the process of colonisation of every region was isolated, but the study of this process, on a continental scale, remains to be done.