Página 56 - Pyrenae46-1

Gustavo G. Politis Reflections on Contemporary Ethnoarchaeology
54 PYRENAE, núm. 46 vol. 1 (2015)ISSN: 0079-8215 EISSN: 2339-9171 (p. 41-83)
with bones discarded by humans in a Peruvian Amazonian village; b) the observations made
by Lange and Rydlberg (1972) in an abandoned house in Costa Rica; c) the research by R.
Carneiro (1979), related to the use of stone axes among the Yanomamö of Venezuela; and
d) the investigation by Donald Lathrap (1969, 1970, 1983), related to pottery production
and discard patterns among the Shipibo-Conibo and to the longevity of ceramics among the
indigenous communities of the Upper Ucayali River in Peru (see also Deboer, 1974; Deboer
and Lathrap, 1979). The latter was a pioneering ethnoarchaeological research designed to
answer very specific questions related to the interpretation of the Early Formative site of
Real Alto in the coast of Ecuador. This groundbreaking development, inspired by Lathrap
and followed by a number of his disciples (Zeidler, 1983, 1984; Siegler and Roe, 1986; Stahl
and Zeilder, 1990) had a tremendous influence on the archaeological study of ceramic pro-
duction as well as ceramic use and discard behavior in Lowland South America (Zeidler,
2014: 61). Actually, Lathrap‘s interest in ethnoarchaeology began very early, even before
the formalization of the subdiscipline, with his dissertation research in the late 1950s and
early 1960s (Lathrap, 1962). It was related to his immersion in the Shipibo-Conibo society
in his archaeological study area on the Ucayali River in the Upper Amazon (Zeidler, 2014).
In the second group, the research by Irmhild Wüst (1975), in an article that is rarely
mentioned in the literature, stands out. This is one of the earliest studies of pottery manu-
facture, carried out within the framework of a regional archeological project (Schmitz,
1975). The Brazilian archeologist T. Miller Jr. (1975, 1979) conducted interesting studies on
lithic production among the last of the Xetá, in Paraná State, Brazil, and Annette Laming-
Emperaire, together with her Brazilian colleagues M.J. Menezes and M.D. Andreatta, later
published more complete observations on the same group (Laming-Emperaire et al., 1978).
Miller also produced very interesting observations about pottery technology among the
Kaingang, and identified the “esfumaramento” technique (Miller Jr., 1979). Moreover,
he made some early reflections on ethnoarchaeology, bringing attention to the potential
of South American indigenous societies (Miller Jr., 1981-1982). The research undertaken
by Mendonça de Souza (1978) can be included in this pioneering stage as well.
In the 1980s, some ethnoarchaeologists worked on the spatial distribution of discarded
bones and other debris in camps among the Aché of Paraguay and on the formation
process of their settlements (Jones, 1983; Borrero and Yacobaccio, 1989). These scholars
were searching for general principles that connected human behavior to the archaeological
record, in accord with the theoretical mainstream present in the United States at that time
(see for example Binford, 1981). The study of pottery production in the Andes within a
processual and analytical framework was a focus of great attention as well, especially by
Argentinian archaeologists working in the northwest of the country (Cremonte, 1984,
1988-1989; García, 1988).
From the 1990s onwards, at least three tendencies can be identified in Latin America
(see summary in Politis, 2004; and, for a summary of Brazilian ethnoarchaeology, see
Robrahn-González, 2004). The first trend restricts case studies to the physical effects of
behaviors that are defined, within the systems, by variables that in principle can be well