Patrones prehistóricos de utilización de los camélidos sudamericanos

Abstract

Prehispanic Camelid Utilization Patterns

In the present study evidence concerning both the origin of camelid domestication and the subsequent development of herding economies is evaluated through the analysis of camelid survivorship/mortality curves. Because the bone fusion age stages proposed by Elizabeth Wing in 1972 have been used by archaeozoologists working in the Andes, it is possible to compare data from several sites. None the less, in the present study we have corrected errors in Wing's age attribution for the fusion of certain bones and recalculated the survivorship curves published for the sites of Tulan 52, Puripica 1, Telarmachay, Kotosh, Galindo, Huacaloma and Layzón. The resultant curves reveal clear differences between hunting and herding economies, as well as distinct levels of herding efficiency or strategies, which support previous hypotheses concerning the origins of domestication.