Apresentação do arqueólogo Eduardo Góes Neves que é professor no Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia (MAE) da USP, onde ensina na Graduação e Pós-Graduação, e no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Antropologia Social da Universidade Federal do Amazonas (PPGAS/UFAM).

1. RECONSIDERING THE
TROPICS
EDUARDO G.
NEVES
WAC 7, JORDAN, JANUARY 18TH 2013
Laboratório de Arqueologia dos Trópicos
Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia
Universidade de São Paulo

2. FAST FACTS ABOUT THE AMAZON
* 6,200,000 km2 of drainage covered by different
kinds of forests,
* Discharge of around 18% of the total flow of
fresh water to the world oceans,
* Average water discharge of more than 200,000
m3s-1,
* Sedimentary load oscillating between 1 and 2
billions of tons per year to 614 Mt year-1 at
Óbidos, close to the mouth (Meade, 1994;
Filizola and Guyot, 2009).

4. Brazilian shield
Guiana shield
Amazon trough
Andes
Sub-andean
foreland
Precambrian
Precambrian
Terciary & Quaternary
Miocene
The geological setting of the Amazon Basin
(earth observtory.nasa.gov)

5. LOWER RIO NEGRO,
CENTRAL AMAZON

6. THE LOWER AMAZON AT URUCURITUBA

7. HIGH BETA DIVERSITY
 LARGE NUMBER OF SPECIES BY
AREA,
 LOW NUMBER OF INDIVIDUALS BY
SPECIES BY AREA,
 LARGE BIODIVERSITY.

8. HIGH BETA DIVERSITY

9. CULTURAL AND BIOLOGICA DIVERSITY IN
THE AMAZON BASIN
• ca. 8.500.000 sq. km (larger than the
continental US),
• Includes 9 different countries,
• Area of high biodiversity but also of large
cultural diversity among indigenous
populations,
• Cultural diversity in the present inferred by the
large numbers of languages and language
families,
• Language diversity emerged in the Holocene
without any major physical barriers.

10. Native language families spoken in western
Amazonia (Eriksen 2011)

11. Native language families spoken in south-central
Amazonia (Eriksen 2011)

12. SOUTH AMERICA AS A “LABORATORY”
EXCEPT POLYNESIA AND ANTARCTICA, THE LAST
CONTINET OCCUPIED BY H. SAPIENS,
INITIAL OCCUPATION IN THE LATE PLEISTOCENE BY
LIKELY BIOLOGICALLY RELATED AND SMALL FOUNDING
GROUPS,
RAPID SPREAD AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF
DIFFERENT LIFE STYLES.

13. THE “STANDARD MODEL”
SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE ON AMAZIAN INDIANS
DEVELOPPED IN THE EARY 1800s THANKS TO
THE INFLUENCE OF VON HUMBOLDT AND
OTHER, MOSTLY GERMAN, SCIENTISTS OF THE
TIME,
CONTRAST BETWEEN THE LARGE LANGUAGE
DIVERSITY AND “BARBARIAN” LIFE STYLES,
F. A. VARNHAGEN (GENERAL HISTORY OF
BRAZIL, 1854): “FOR THESE PEOPLE, THERE IS
NO HISTORY, ONLY ETHNOGRAPHY”.

14. E. DA CUNHA’S TRIP TO THE PURUS RIVER
(1908)
“Nature is magnificent but incomplete. It is an
stupenduous construction lacking interior
decoration. One understands well the reason
why: the Amazon is maybe the youngest part
of the earth ... It has everything and it lacks
everything, because it misses such chain of
phenomena developped under a rigorous
rythm from which result, clearly, the truths of
art and science.”

15. Double moated square geogliph – Purus basin, SW
Amazon (photo M. Paiva)

16. Deforestation wave in Acre state, SW Amazon
(photo M. Paiva)

17. LOCATION OF GEOGLYPH SITES IN THE
PURUS BASIN (SCHAAN 2010)

18. The “standard model” for the cultural history of
ancient South America (Rouse 1992)

19. Caral, monumental architecture at ca. 3,500 BC in
the Central Peruvian Coast (photo E. Neves).

20. “The Counterfeit Paradise”

21. TROPICAL FOREST PATTERN: ITINERANT, SLASH-
AND-BURN MANIOC FARMING

22. Archaeological site covered by mature forest,
Aripuanã river, southern Amazon
(photos Claide Moraes)

23. CURRENT LOCATION OF INDIGENOUS
LANDS IN THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON
(INSITUTO SOCIOAMBIENTAL 2009)

24. Ceramic sherds on the surface of archaeological
sites adjacent to the Amazon floodplain
(photos M. Castro and E. Neves).

25. Anori, Solimões river,
courtesy Márjorie Lima

26. Paricatuba, confluence of the Negro and Solimões,
photo Maurício de Paiva

27. Polychrome antropomorph urn,
S. Sebastião do Uatumã (courtesy W. C. Oliveira)

28. GUARITA URNS FROM
THE CENTRAL AMAZON

29. HISTORICAL ECOLOGY
 REVALUATION OF EARLY CHRONICLER’S REPORTING,
IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES AD,
LARGE POPULATION AGREGATES ALONG THE
AMAZON,
 PRESENCE OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES IN AREAS
CURRENT COVERED BY MATURE OR “PRISTINE”
FORESTS,
 AMAZON FOREST WITH A CULTURAL HISTORY AS
WELL AS WITH A NATURAL HISTORY.

30. HOW VISIBLE IS THE FOOTPRINT OF
ANCIENT AMAZONIANS?
 BRIEF REVIEW OF CASE STUDIES:
 1) DATA FOR EARLY OCCUPATION,
 2) DATA FOR EARLY CERAMIC PRODUCTION,
 3) FORMATION OF ANTHROPIC SOILS,
 4) EXAMPLES FROM THE UPPER AMAZON,
CENTRAL AMAZON, SOUTHERN AMAZON,
MOUTH OF THE AMAZON AND FRENCH
GUIANA.

31. LATE PLEISTOCENE/EARLY HOLOCENE SITES IN
SOUTH AMERICA (DILLEHAY 2008)

32. PEDRA PINTADA CAVE, LOWER AMAZON, ROCK ART
DATING BACK TO CA. CAL 9,000 BCE (photo E. Neves)

33. Pedra Pintada Cave, lower Amazon
ca. 9,200 BCE (Photo E. Neves)

34. Excavations at Dona Stella Site – CAL 6,500
BCE

35. EARLY POTTERY FROM MONTE CASTELO
SHELLMOUND, SOUTHWESTERN AMAZON,
PHOTOS BY EURICO T. MILLER

36. ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES IDENTIFIED BY THE CENTRAL
AMAZON PROJECT (1995-2010)

38. General map of Açutuba site (ca. 900 ha.) (Neves 08)

40. Hatahara site –
early terra preta contexts at 6th century AD (photo Val Moraes)

42. ANTHROPIC DARK SOILS OR “TERRAS PRETAS”

43. ARTIFICIAL MOUNDS OF THE CENTRAL AMAZON

44. DIGITAL TOPOGRAPHY OF LAGUINHO SITE
SHOWING ARTIFICIAL MOUNDS

46. CURRENT LAND USES AT LAGUINHO SITE

47. GUARITA PHASE VESSEL, CENTRAL AMAZON,
EARLY SECOND MILLENIUM AD (McEWAN ET AL. 2001)

48. PRIVATE COLLECTION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL
ARTEFACTS, CENTRAL AMAZON (PHOTO M. PAIVA)

49. POLYCROME ANTHROPOMORPHIC URN, CENTRAL AMAZON,
EARLY SECOND MILLENIUM AD (PHOTO M. PAIVA)

50. Llanos de Mojos, Bolivian Amazon,
maps and pictures by Heiko Prümmers (2007) and Carla Jaimes (2008)

51. Topographic Map of Loma Salvatierra, Bolivian
Amazon (Prümmers 2007)

52. Excavation at Loma Salvatierra, (Prümmers 2007)

53. Loma Salvatierra, Bolivian Amazon,
stratigraphic profile of mound (Jaimes 2008)

56. Distrubution of ancient settlements connected by roads
in the Upper Xingu, southern Amazon
(Heckenberger et al. 2008)

57. RECONSTITUTION OF “GARDEN CITY” IN THE UPPER XINGÚ
(HECKENBERGER 2010)

58. Areas with archaeological sites and mounds in Marajó
island, mouth of the Amazon (source IPEN)

59. Artificial mound at Marajó island (Rostain 2010)

60. STRATIGRAPHIC CUT OF PECAQUARA MOUND,
MARAJÓ ISLAND (PHOTO MY M. HECKENBERGER)

61. Distribution of
mounds in the
Camutins area,
Marajó island
(Schaan 2008)

62. Hypothetical reconstitution of mound occupation at
Marajó island (from National Geographic Brasil)

63. MARAJÓ ISLAND STATUETTE
(NORDENSKIOLD 1930)

64. EXHIBITION OF MARAJÓ ISLAND URNS
(photo E. Neves)

65. Archaeological sites at the mouth of the Amazon
(Cabral & Saldanha 2012)

66. SAMPLE OF URNS FROM THE NORTH SHORE OF THE
MOUTH OF THE AMAZON (Rostain 2010)
Por Stephen Rostain

67. MEGALITHIC STRUCTURES – NORTH SHORE OF THE
MOUTH OF THE AMAZON (CABRAL & SALDANHA 2010)

68. 30 metros

73. Raised fields in the French Guiana Coast (Rostain 2010)

74. Aerial view of artificial mounds at the French Guiana
coast (Rostain 2010)

75. Raised fields and Mounds in the Kourou section,
French Guiana Coast (Rostain 2010)

76. SUMMING UP:
THERE WERE INDEED MANY PEOPLE IN THE AMAZON
BEFORE EUROPEAN COLONIZATION,
ANCIENT AMAZONIANS HAD DIFFERENT LIFE
STYLES(CULTURAL DIVERSITY), AND CREATED CULTURAL
LANDSCAPES,
DESPITE “MONUMENTAL EVIDENCE, THERE WERE NO
STATE-LIKE FORMATIONS,
AMAZONIAN ARCHAEOLOGY CAN MAKE AN IMPORTANT
THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTION TO THE DISCIPLINE.

77. How have archaeologists conceptualized
agriculture in pre-colonial Amazonia?
Ethnographic projection of the “tropical
forest pattern” into the past,
Projection of a “mississipian-inspired”
model of intensification and corn-cultivation
in floodplains.

78. Slash and burn manioc farming, upland highly
mobile model (tropical forest pattern)

79. SO FAR, HOWEVER, THERE IS
SURPRISINGLY VERY FEW
PALEOBOTHANIC EVIDENCE FOR
WIDESPREAD CULTIVATION OF
MANIOC IN THE AMAZON, ALTHOUGH
IT WAS ALREADY MANAGED IN THE
RIO PORCE AREA OF COLOMBIA BY
CA. 6.000 BC.

80. IN THE SAME WAY,
AGRICULTURAL
SYSTEMS WERE
PROBABLY LESS
MOBILE IN THE
PAST, AT LEAST
BECAUSE OF THE
USE OF STONE
AXES.

81. THEREFORE PRE-COLONIAL AGRO-
FORESTRY SYSTEMS WERE MORE
INTENSE, OPPORTUNISTIC AND
MAYBE STABLE.

82. PALMS AS PROXIES FOR MANAGEMENT.
THE ONLY FULLY DOMESTICATED PALM
IN THE AMAZON IS THE PEACH PALM
(Bactris gasipaes),
SEVERALL OTHER PALMS ARE
ECONOMICALLY AND CULTURALLY
IMPORTANT BUT NOT DOMESTICATED.

83. Eutherpe oleracea grove at the back of house, Central
Amazon (photo E. Neves)

84. Eutherpe oleracea stand, mouth of the Amazon
(photo M. Paiva)

85. Mauritia fleuxosa stand, upper Amazon,
Peru (photo by Nigel Smith)

86. I
IT IS IMPORTANT TO ESTABLISH A
DISTINCTION BETWEEN
DOMESTICATION AND AGRICULTURE,
DOMESTICATION IS VERY OLD IN THE
AMAZON BUT IT IS A PROCESS THAT
DOES NOT NECESSARILY LEADS TO
AGRICULTURE.

87. BECAUSE DOMESTICATION IS A CO-
EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS (RINDOS 84),
MAYBE THERE WERE FEW SELECTIVE
PRESSURES FOR AGRICULTURE TO EMERGE,
TIME TO ABANDON THE WORD “INCIPIENT”,
RESOURCES WERE ABUNDANT AND WIDELY
DISTRIBUTED.

88. WIDESPREAD, “TRADITIONAL”
MANIOC TROPICAL FOREST PATTERN
MAY RESULT FROM EUROPEAN
COLONIZATION

89. Soybean expansion frontier in Southern Amazon

90. SUMMING UP:
 WHAT LOOK LIKE “TRADITIONAL
PATTERNS” CAN BE QUITE RECENT,
 FARMING IS AN IDEOLOGICAL
IMPOSITION,
 THE VALUE OF BEING “LAZY”.

91. “TROPICAL” IS NOT A NATURAL CONCEPT
HISTORICALLY IDENTIFIABLE AS WITH THE
CASE OF TROPICAL DISEASES:
MALARIA,
YELLOW FEVER,
DENGUE,
MAYBE AIDS IN THE FUTURE.

92. PRESSURES ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, THE ENVIRONMENT
AND THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL HERITAGE
(INSTITUTO SOCIOAMBIENTAL 2009)

93. SANTO ANTONIO RAPIDS, 2008
(PHOTO E. NEVES)

94. PLACE WHERE SANTO ANTONIO RAPIDS USED TO
BE, MADEIRA RIVER, SW AMAZON
(PHOTO SANTO ANTONIO ENERGIA)

95. GOLD MINING POTENTIAL IN THE UPPER TAPAJÓS BASIN
WHERE 7 HIDROELECTRIC DAMS ARE PLANNED
http://lab.org.uk/day-of-terror

96.  Screen Shot 2013-04-13 at 21.05.58