On the extremes of hunter-fisher-gatherers of America's Pacific Rim

Abstract

The paper explores the feasibility of a comparative analysis of the elements related to the social reproduction of hunter-gatherer-fisher societies. Those living on both extremes of the Pacific coast of America have been used to discuss the Evolutionist approach. There are common traits in the evolution of the societies in both extremes. Their evolution began to diverge only after a particular point. The impacts of some sudden changes and mismatches show up as hiatuses in the respective developments. In Tierra del Fuego people manage to control and adjust their own reproduction, whilst the NWC entered into a spiral development that led to the complex societies described in the ethnographic record.

These parallel developments and the recurrences in social organization in completely independent places have also been useful for deconstructing some assumptions about prehistoric Art, derived from modern concepts. The analysis of Pictures-Drawings-Engravings-Stencils must be situated in its historical context to show that there are also complex series of hierarchized traits in the systems of social relationships that can be effectively reflected archaeologically