Perishable Technology and the Successful Peopling of South America

ABSTRACT

Recent research demonstrates that perishable industries – specifically including the manufacture of textiles, basketry, cordage, and netting – were a well-established, integral component of the Upper Paleolithic milieu in many parts of the Old World. Moreover, extant data suggest that not only were these synergistic technologies part and parcel of the armamentarium of the first migrants to the New World, but, also, that these technologies played critical, and hitherto, largely unappreciated roles in the ecological success of late Pleistocene populations, notably including the first South Americans. This paper examines the evidence for, and varied roles of, early plant fiber technology in highland and lowland South America and also examines the adaptive qualities, potential impacts on social organization, and alteration of food procurement strategies implicit in this fundamentally crucial series of interrelated industries.

KEYWORDS:

• Perishables
• Pleistocene
• weaving
• Andes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

J. M. Adovasio is the Director of Archaeology at the Senator John Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh, PA. His research interests include prehistoric technology, especially basketry and textiles; early humans in North America; the Archaic (Mesolithic) stage in the Old and New Worlds; Quaternary paleoecology and geoarchaeology; and research methodology in the excavation of caves and rockshelters.

T. D. Dillehay is the Rebecca Webb Wilson University Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Religion, and Culture, and Professor of Anthropology and Latin American Studies at Vanderbilt University, TN. He has carried out numerous research projects in Peru, Chile, Argentina, and other South American countries, as well as in the US. He is the author of 22 books and more than 300 refereed journal articles and book chapters.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Science Foundation: [Grant Number Bn-201934].