A pre-Hispanic chiefdom in Barinas, Venezuela : excavations at Gaván-complex sites.

Spencer, Charles S.; Redmond, Elsa M.; Duncan, William N.; Berrizbeitia, Emily L.; G., Ramón. Sifontes; Schubert, Carlos; Gassón, Rafael; Rinaldi, Milagro; Bonzani, Renée M.

doi:10.5531/sp.anth.0100

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…At the moment, the research agenda for archaeology in the Venezuelan llanos is concentrated both in the western part of this macro-region (e.g. Gassón and Rey 2006;Gassón 2007b;Rey-González 2007;Spencer et al 2014), and in the eastern llanos (e.g. Rodríguez and Navarrete 1995;Navarrete 2000;Rodríguez-Yilo 2001).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pre-colonial earthen structures have been reported in Venezuela since the nineteenth century (Marcano 1971a;Jahn 1927;Gassón 2002;Rey-González 2007). Systematic research into mounds or elevated platforms, raised cultivation fields and causeways in the western llanos of Barinas State began in the 1960s (Zucchi 1968(Zucchi , 1973Spencer et al 2014). Unfortunately, research into these phenomena in the densely populated and urbanized Lake Valencia region was long in coming.…”

Section: Landscape Engineeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Re-thinking the Migration of Cariban-Speakers from the Middle Orinoco River to North-Central Venezuela (AD 800)

2017

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Moving back in time from the early colonial to the late pre-colonial period we evaluate the hypothesis asserting the migratory movement of Cariban-speaking groups from the Middle Orinoco River area towards north-central Venezuela. The explanation in vogue maintains that the migration followed fluvial routes and occurred between 1350 and 1150 BP (AD 600-800). We examine archaeological, linguistic, ethnohistorical, genetic, and ecological data seeking similarities between the Orinoco emigrants and their northcentral Venezuelan descendants. As a result, we propose an alternative terrestrial/fluvial route and suggest these events occurred between 1150 and 1050 BP (AD 800-900). The route first proceeded upstream along rivers of the central llanos and later followed a natural terrestrial geomorphological corridor into the Lake Valencia Basin. We argue that, while future interdisciplinary (especially archaeo-linguistic and bioarchaeological) research is needed to further assess the results of these analyses, the Orinocan descendants in northcentral Venezuela emerge as one of the most dynamic sociopolitical Cariban-speaking entities in all northeastern South America and the insular Caribbean on the eve of the European Conquest.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Landscape Engineeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-thinking the Migration of Cariban-Speakers from the Middle Orinoco River to North-Central Venezuela (AD 800)

2017

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“…Such areas have been found in the western (Denevan & Zucchi, 1978;Garson, 1980Spencer & Redmond, 2014Spencer & Redmond, 1998;Spencer et al, 1994;Zucchi & Denevan, 1979), central, and northeastern Orinoco and piedmont and the coastal lowlands of the Guianas (Rostain, 2008;2013 a and b;Versteeg, 2008;Versteeg & Bubberman,1992). Shapes and sizes of fields were very diverse, often clustered by shape type, but all seem to have been constructed by digging drainage ditches and by heaping the mud from them on top of the fields (Figures 11, 12).…”

Section: The Agricultural Societies and Their Cultivation Systemsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Most raised fields investigated, however, date after AD 1000, and a few constructions have turned out to be post-conquest. Modern people occasionally renovate and cultivate the prehistoric ones sometimes for maize, sometimes for root crops (e.g., Spencer & Redmond 2014;Rostain, 2008a: 225), but most of those investigated have produced prehistoric artifacts and/or radiocarbon dates. Thus, it seems that only during the last 1500 years or so of prehistory during a period of intense complex society development and population expansion that we have secure evidence of true agriculture that produced the majority of the food in the societies.…”

Section: The Agricultural Societies and Their Cultivation Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Method and Theory of Early Farming: The Orinoco and Caribbean Coasts of South America

Roosevelt¹

2016

ESR

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The early and mid 20th century was a time of great interest in the rise of agriculture and its role in the evolution of civilizations societies in particular environments. Late 20th century efforts to reconstruct the nature and history of prehistoric farming societies in the northern lowlands of South America ranged from expansive hypotheses to regional case studies using archaeobotanical technologies then available. Since 2000, a large number of regional studies using expanded and refined methods have produced broadly interesting results. Approaches from the fields of geography and earth sciences are being recruited increasingly. The resulting empirical evidence does shed light on aspects of the history of human use of some plants but, as always, has raised more questions than it solved. Many of the problems interpreting the processual and evolutionary significance of these findings are methodological ones. This article reviews what seem to be the most important methodological and interpretive issues of this area of research for the tropical lowlands (up to c. 1500 m a.s.l) of northern South America.

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“…The regional center of El Gaván was by far the largest of these villages during Late Gaván times (550–1000 CE), but the smaller satellite community of B97, less than 0.5 km to the southwest of El Gaván, provides a better opportunity for assessing the full range of productive differentiation in the local economy, uncomplicated by the defensive and long-distance exchange activities that took place at the regional center. Excavation units scattered across the site provide 23 domestic artifact assemblages from different locations [ 25 ]. As at Fábrica San José, a multidimensional scaling reveals a dense core of highly similar assemblages that reflect ordinary domestic activities ( Fig 1B ).…”

Section: Productive Differentiation In Four Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local economies and household spacing in early chiefdom communities

2021

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Archaeological research has by now revealed a great deal of variation in the way early complex societies, or chiefdoms, developed. This variation is widely recognized, but our understanding of the forces that produced it remains relatively undeveloped. This paper takes aim at such understanding by exploring variation in the local economies of six early chiefdoms; it considers what implications this variation had for trajectories of chiefdom development, as well as the source of that variation. Economic exchange is a primary form of local interaction in all societies. Because of distance-interaction principles, closer household spacing within local communities facilitated more frequent interaction and thus encouraged productive differentiation, economic interdependence, and the development of well-integrated local economies. Well-integrated local economies, in turn, provided ready opportunities for aspiring leaders to accumulate wealth and fund political economies, and pursuit of these opportunities led to societies with leaders whose power had a direct economic base. Wider household spacing, on the other hand, impeded interaction and the development of well-integrated local economies. In such contexts, aspiring leaders were able to turn to ritual and religion as a base of social power. Even when well-integrated local economies offered opportunities for wealth accumulation and a ready source of funding for political economies, these opportunities were not always taken advantage of. That variation in the shapes of early chiefdoms can be traced back to patterns of household spacing highlights the importance of settlement and interaction in explaining not just chiefdom development, but societal change more generally.

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A pre-Hispanic chiefdom in Barinas, Venezuela : excavations at Gaván-complex sites.

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Re-thinking the Migration of Cariban-Speakers from the Middle Orinoco River to North-Central Venezuela (AD 800)

Re-thinking the Migration of Cariban-Speakers from the Middle Orinoco River to North-Central Venezuela (AD 800)

Method and Theory of Early Farming: The Orinoco and Caribbean Coasts of South America

Local economies and household spacing in early chiefdom communities

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