Emergence of social complexity among coastal hunter-gatherers in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile.
The emergence of complex cultural practices in simple hunter-gatherer groups poses interesting questions on what drives social complexity and what causes the emergence and disappearance of cultural innovations. Here we analyze the conditions that underlie the emergence of artificial mummification in the Chinchorro culture in the coastal Atacama Desert in northern Chile and southern Peru. We provide empirical and theoretical evidence that artificial mummification appeared during a period of increased coastal freshwater availability and marine productivity, which caused an increase in human population size and accelerated the emergence of cultural innovations, as predicted by recent models of cultural and technological evolution. Under a scenario of increasing population size and extreme aridity (with little or no decomposition of corpses) a simple demographic model shows that dead individuals may have become a significant part of the landscape, creating the conditions for the manipulation of the dead that led to the emergence of complex mortuary practices.
Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago, Chile. pmarquet@bio.puc.cl
Pablo A
PA
Marquet
Calogero M
CM
Santoro
Claudio
C
Latorre
Vivien G
VG
Standen
Sebastián R
SR
Abades
Marcelo M
MM
Rivadeneira
Bernardo
B
Arriaza
Michael E
ME
Hochberg
D002677:Chile; D003468:Cultural Evolution; D003889:Desert Climate; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D046448:Ice Cover / Q000737:chemistry; D009106:Mummies / Q000266:history*; D010103:Oxygen Isotopes / Q000032:analysis; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012919:Social Behavior / Q000266:history*; D012924:Social Conditions / Q000266:history*
D010103:Oxygen Isotopes