Economic Intensification and Social Complexity of South Andean Hunters and Gatherers

Abstract

The central issue of this paper is that social complexity in South Andean hunter-gatherers is related to an emergent process of regional economic intensification that began in the Middle Holocene period. This process involved a strategy of economic specialization in the use of wild camelids, followed by a diversifying strategy related to the domestication of plants and animals, and the subsequent establishment of long-distance exchange networks. Taking into account this model, this paper assesses the social strategies involved in the generation of heterogeneous social organization and its main components.