Disease: A Hitherto Unexplored Constraint on the Spread of Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) in Pre-Columbian South America

Although debate continues, there is agreement that dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) were first domesticated in Eurasia, spreading from there to other parts of the world. However, while that expansion already extended as far as Europe, China, and North America by the early Holocene, dogs spread into (and south of) the tropics only much later. In South America, for example, the earliest well attested instances of their presence do not reach back much beyond 3000 cal. BC, and dogs were still absent from large parts of the continent – Amazonia, the Gran Chaco, and much of the Southern Cone – at European contact. Previous explanations for these patterns have focused on cultural choice, the unsuitability of dogs for hunting certain kinds of tropical forest prey, and otherwise unspecified environmental hazards, while acknowledging that Neotropical lowland forests witness high rates of canine mortality. Building on previous work in Sub-Saharan Africa (Mitchell 2015) and noting that the dog’s closest relatives, the grey wolf (C. lupus) and the coyote (C. latrans), were likewise absent from South and most of Central America in Pre- Columbian times, this paper explores instead the possibility that infectious disease constrained the spread of dogs into Neotropical environments. Four diseases are considered, all likely to be native and/or endemic to South America: canine distemper, canine trypanosomiasis, canine rangeliosis, and canine visceral leishmaniasis caused by infection with Leishmania amazonensis and L. colombiensis. The paper concludes by suggesting ways in which the hypothesis that disease constrained the expansion of dogs into South America can be developed further

Is it agriculture yet? Intensified maize-use at 1000cal BC in the Soconusco and Mesoamerica

The development of food production in Mesoamerica was a complex and protracted process. We argue that while maize had been cultivated for many millennia, this cereal grain assumed a markedly more important role in the political economy of the Soconusco (and elsewhere in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize) only after 1000. cal BC. Macrobotanical data from the long-occupied village of Cuauhtémoc document low-level maize production from 1900 to 1400. cal BC with a significant increase during the final centuries of the site's occupation after 1000. cal BC. Botanical evidence of increased maize consumption at this time occurred with evidence for changing groundstone use, intensified exploitation of dog and deer as well as iconography linking maize with rulership. This was also when monumental architecture was first built to mark a regional hierarchy of political centers. Changes evident in the Soconusco at 1000. cal BC parallel transformations in both highland and lowland regions of Mesoamerica when ceramic-using villagers expanded into new environments, farther away from the permanent water sources favored by Late Archaic and Early Formative peoples. We interpret the changes evident at 1000. cal BC in terms of both proximate historical factors as well as ultimate adaptive causes to produce a fuller understanding of changing Mesoamerican food production practices

Is it agriculture yet? Intensified maize-use at 1000cal BC in the Soconusco and Mesoamerica

The development of food production in Mesoamerica was a complex and protracted process. We argue that while maize had been cultivated for many millennia, this cereal grain assumed a markedly more important role in the political economy of the Soconusco (and elsewhere in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize) only after 1000. cal BC. Macrobotanical data from the long-occupied village of Cuauhtémoc document low-level maize production from 1900 to 1400. cal BC with a significant increase during the final centuries of the site's occupation after 1000. cal BC. Botanical evidence of increased maize consumption at this time occurred with evidence for changing groundstone use, intensified exploitation of dog and deer as well as iconography linking maize with rulership. This was also when monumental architecture was first built to mark a regional hierarchy of political centers. Changes evident in the Soconusco at 1000. cal BC parallel transformations in both highland and lowland regions of Mesoamerica when ceramic-using villagers expanded into new environments, farther away from the permanent water sources favored by Late Archaic and Early Formative peoples. We interpret the changes evident at 1000. cal BC in terms of both proximate historical factors as well as ultimate adaptive causes to produce a fuller understanding of changing Mesoamerican food production practices

Monumental architecture at Aguada Fénix and the rise of Maya civilization

Archaeologists have traditionally thought that the development of Maya civilization was gradual, assuming that small villages began to emerge during the Middle Preclassic period (1000-350 bc; dates are calibrated throughout) along with the use of ceramics and the adoption of sedentism(1). Recent finds of early ceremonial complexes are beginning to challenge this model. Here we describe an airborne lidar survey and excavations of the previously unknown site of Aguada Fenix (Tabasco, Mexico) with an artificial plateau, which measures 1,400 m in length and 10 to 15 m in height and has 9 causeways radiating out from it. We dated this construction to between 1000 and 800 bc using a Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. To our knowledge, this is the oldest monumental construction ever found in the Maya area and the largest in the entire pre-Hispanic history of the region. Although the site exhibits some similarities to the earlier Olmec centre of San Lorenzo, the community of Aguada Fenix probably did not have marked social inequality comparable to that of San Lorenzo. Aguada Fenix and other ceremonial complexes of the same period suggest the importance of communal work in the initial development of Maya civilization. Lidar survey of the Maya lowlands uncovers the monumental site of Aguada Fenix, which dates to around 1000-800 bc and points to the role of communal construction in the development of Maya civilization.6 month embargo; published online: 3 June 2020This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]