On Vastness and Variability: Cultural Transmission, Historicity, and the Paleoindian Record in Eastern South America

Eastern South America, or what is today Brazilian territory, poses interesting questions about the early human occupation of the Americas. Three totally distinct and contemporaneous lithic technologies, dated between 11,000 and 10,000 14C BP, are present in different portions of the country: the Umbu tradition in the south, with its formal bifacial industry, with well-retouched scrapers and bifacial points; the Itaparica tradition in the central-west / northwest, totally unifacial, whose only formal artifacts are limaces; and the "Lagoa Santa" industry, completely lacking any formal artifacts, composed mainly of small quartz flakes. Our data suggests that these differences are not related to subsistence or raw-material constraints, but rather to different cultural norms and transmission of strongly divergent chaînes opératoires. Such diversity in material culture, when viewed from a cultural transmission (CT) theory standpoint, seems at odds with a simple Clovis model as the origin of these three cultural traditions given the time elapsed since the first Clovis ages and the expected population structure of the early South American settlers

Contributions to the Dart versus Arrow Debate: New Data from Holocene Projectile Points from Southeastern and Southern Brazil

Lithic bifacial points are very common in the southern and southeastern regions of the Brazilian territory. Dated from Early to Late Holocene, these artifacts have not been studied in terms of their propulsion system. Given the characteristics of the bow and arrow compared to the atlatl and dart, there are important differences in the size and weight of arrowheads and dart points. Applying the techniques proposed by Shott (1997), Bradbury (1997), Fenenga (1953), Hughes (1998), and Hildebrandt and King (2012) to specimens recovered from eight sites dating from the early to the late Holocene, this work aims to present preliminary results to better understand the potential presence of darts and arrows in southeastern and southern Brazil. There was a variation in the results according to the application of different techniques. At least one set of points, dated from the Early Holocene, presented quite a high proportion of specimens classified as arrows, indicating the presence of points that could be used as arrowheads

Extreme cultural persistence in eastern-central Brazil: the case of Lagoa Santa Paleaeoindians

ABSTRACT Lapa do Santo rockshelter, a Paleoindian site located in Eastern-Central Brazil, presented two main occupations; one during Early Holocene (12,460 to 8700 cal BP), and a latter in Middle Holocene (5100 to 4200 cal BP). In spite of this 3600 year gap, the stratigraphy and general characteristics of the material culture did not indicate any visible discontinuity. This led us to hypothesise a reoccupation of the rockshelter by the same cultural group, tested by means of statistical analyses comparing lithics, bone artifacts, and faunal remains from early and middle Holocene layers. No significant differences were found, and our results indicate the presence of a cultural tradition that persisted for 8240 years, or roughly 412 generations

Benchmarking methods and data for the whole-outline geometric morphometric analysis of lithic tools

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Cultural Evolution Society for funding this workshop. Additional costs were covered by funds made available by the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science (project COMPARCH, Grant Number 1113-00015B). David N. Matzig and Felix Riede's contributions are part of CLIOARCH, an ERC Consolidator Grant project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreement No. 817564). Mercedes Okumura's research is funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP, Grant No. 2018/23282-5). Astolfo G. M. Araujo's research is funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP, Grant No. 2019/18664-9). Renata P. Araujo's research is funded by a doctoral grant from Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, Grant No. 142353/2019-1). Alice Leplongeon's research is funded by a postdoctoral grant from the Research Foundation in Flanders (FWO #12U9220N). José R. Rabuñal is supported by Margarita Salas fellowship (MARSALAS21-22) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Universities, the European Union-Next Generation EU and the University of Alicante. The authors also thank the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies for hosting all participants during this event