Browsing by Author "McRostie, Virginia"

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    A modeling approach to estimate the historical population size of the Patagonian Kawesqar people
    (2022) Estay, Sergio A.; Lopez, Daniela N.; Silva, Carmen P.; Gayo, Eugenia M.; McRostie, Virginia; Lima, Mauricio
    The study of human-gatherers societies' demography used to be a difficult task due to the lack of direct evidence to support the estimations. This is the case of several human groups from Pacific Patagonia whose historical population size estimations are controversial. This study estimated the historical population size for the Kawesqar people using direct and indirect evidence. Thus, we collated past estimations from experts and encounter rates distribution in time and space to generate a statistical approximation for population size. We used weights to include the reliability of such past estimations under three modeling scenarios. Our results indicate that the historical population ranged roughly between 3700 and 3900 individuals before the massive contact with Chileans and European people. The approach developed here for combining and integrating different evidence for estimating population in Kawesqar people, emerges as a promising and valuable tool to study the demography of other hunter-gatherer societies in South America.
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    Acta de Tarapacá: pueblo sin agua, pueblo muerto
    (2018) Latorre Hidalgo, Claudio; Marquet Iturriaga, Pablo Angel; McRostie, Virginia; Maldonado, Antonio; Santoro, Calogero M.; Valenzuela, Daniela; Jofré, Daniela; Angelo, Dante; Gayo, Eugenia M.; Hamamé, Eva; Correa, Jacqueline; Barraza, José; Capriles, José M.; Porras, María Eugenia de; Uribe, Mauricio; Castro, Victoria; Standen, Vivien G.
    El “Acta de Tarapacá” constituye un llamado de atención sobre la necesidad de cambiar la manera como las sociedades humanas han estado utilizando el agua en el Desierto de Atacama, mediante una perspectiva histórica a lo largo de milenios. El Acta, una iniciativa que resume los resultados del proyecto CONICYT/PIA Anillo SOC1405 “Cambios Sociales y Variabilidad Climática a Largo Plazo en el Desierto de Atacama”, está dirigida a la sociedad civil y a distintas instancias políticas con miras a que se generen cambios tecnológicos y culturales para detener y mitigar los efectos causados por las actividades antrópicas en uno de los desiertos más antiguos y áridos del mundo. En el transcurso del proyecto se constató la necesidad urgente de sensibilizar a la sociedad acerca del desmesurado y mal uso del agua en el Desierto de Atacama; un recurso no renovable con relación a las escalas económicas de extracción ya que depende, fundamentalmente, de aguas fósiles que fueron acumuladas durante milenios en las zonas altas del desierto. De esta manera queremos evitar que este conocimiento científico se encapsule en las universidades y hacer eco de lo señalado por Victoria Castro (2003): Para crecer hay que educar.
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    Pre-European Plant Consumption and Cultural Changes in the Coastal Lluta Valley, Atacama Desert, Northern Chile (Ca. 5140-390 Cal Yr BP)
    (2020) Garcia, Magdalena; Santoro, Calogero M.; McRostie, Virginia; Mendez-Quiros, Pablo; Salas-Egana, Carolina; Carter, Chris; Rothhammer, Francisco; Latorre, Claudio
    Pre-European Plant Consumption and Cultural Changes in the Coastal Lluta Valley, Atacama Desert, Northern Chile (Ca. 5140-390 Cal Yr BP). The introduction of domesticated plants into ancient hunting and gathering economic systems expanded and transformed human societies worldwide during the Holocene. These transformations occurred even in the oases and hyperarid environments of the Atacama Desert along the Pacific coast. Human groups inhabiting this desert incorporated adjacent habitats to the semi-tropical valleys through transitory or logistic camps like Morro Negro 1 (MN-1), in the Lluta valley (similar to 12 km from the littoral in northernmost Chile), into their settlement patterns. During the earliest occupation (Late Archaic period, 5140-4270 cal yr BP) people collected and consumed wild plants, although crops such as Lagenaria were present. Following a gap of more than 2000 years between 4270 and 1850, people returned and introduced new domesticated plants at the site (Gossypium, Zea mays, Capsicum), which displaced the use of wild reed (Schoenoplectus) rhizomes as the chief staple during the first occupation. This change in food consumption was linked to the transformations that took place during the Archaic-Formative transition, but did not entirely shift the ways of life of these coastal marine hunter-gatherers.
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    Silvopastoralism and the shaping of forest patches in the Atacama Desert during the Formative Period (ca. 3000-1500 years BP)
    (2022) McRostie, Virginia; Babot, Pilar; Calas, Elisa; Gayo, Eugenia; Gallardo, Francisco; Godoy-Aguirre, Carolina; Labarca, Rafael; Latorre, Claudio; Nunez, Lautaro; Ojeda, Karla; Santoro, Calogero M.; Valenzuela, Daniela
    During the Formative period by the Late-Holocene (ca. 3000-1500 BP), semi-sedentary and sedentary human occupations had emerged in the oases, salares, and riverine systems in the central depression (2400-1000 masl) of the Atacama Desert, northern Chile (19-25 degrees S). This hyperarid core was marginally occupied during the post-Pleistocene and middle Holocene droughts. Settlement on these lower belts was accompanied by a rise in humidity, the introduction of Andean crops, flourishment of Prosopis spp. (algarrobo) forests, and increasing integration of domestic camelid caravans. Here, we explore lowland husbandry within risk-spreading strategies, focusing on silvopastoralism and endozoochory between camelids and algarrobos. Analysis of camelid coprolites from seven archeological sites located in the Pampa del Tamarugal, Loa River, and Salar de Atacama found intense grinding from camelid chewing and indicated a ruminal digestive system. Abundant macro and microremains in the form of tissues, phytoliths, crystals, cell structures, and others, were identified as Prosopis, Atriplex, Schoenoplectus, Distichlis, and Phragmites. We conclude that camelids were foraging for Prosopis, although the rather low number of entire seeds preserved in the coprolites leads us to think that these herbivores might not have been the main vectors for the spread and germination of algarrobos. More samples and interdisciplinary studies are needed to comprehend the complex socioecological web in the shaping of these forests and the management of the Atacama Desert landscapes.