Communal, collective and massive guanaco hunts: the regional archaeological contribution to its discussion in Southern Patagonia

Abstract

In southern Patagonia, the variety of human hunting strategies has been so broad that it isunlikely that most of them are not represented (individual, collective, communal, massive);especially during the Late Holocene (ca. 3500 years BP), when a wide range of technologicalvariations are incorporated into social practice.This work seeks to analyze whether collective, communal, and/or massive hunts (CCMH)existed during that period, especially during the middle Late Holocene (ca. 2000 years BPonwards). The conditions under which they would have occurred and their materialconsequences in the archaeological record are proposed.This work aims to evaluate the temporal depth of the CCMH of the main prey in the region,the guanaco (Lama guanicoe). The social, environmental, and ecological factors that fosteredthis practice are also discussed, emphasizing the importance of the behavior of this prey atthe time of human decision-making. Here, examples from the central-western plateaus ofSanta Cruz (Argentine Patagonia) are analyzed, related to the behavior of the guanaco, andon the other hand, with the distribution, characteristics, chronology, and frequency of theregional archaeological record. Thus, the temporal depth of these hunting strategies and theneed to address them on a regional spatial scale from multiple lines of evidence such astechnology, zooarchaeology, and rock art representations are examined.