报告一：Hunter-gatherer societies in the extreme South of South America:
approaches from experimental and ethnoarchaeological research
Dr. María Estela Mansur
2012年10月9日，上午9:00-11:30，谈古斋-602
报告二：Techno functional analysis of lithic artifacts and the interpretation of technological organization: theory and examples from South America
Dr. María Estela Mansur
2012年10月10日，下午2:00-4:00，谈古斋-602
Dr. María Estela Mansur is a current Researcher of the National Council for Scientific Research of Argentina (CONICET) and a Professor in Tierra del Fuego University.
She studied in La Plata University (Argentina) and completed her PhD in Bordeux I University (France). From that moment on, she specialized in tecno-functional analysis of archaeological materials and its application to lines of research in the interpretation of technological organization.
She is director of two main projects: Techno-functional analysis of archaeological materials (ATMA) and Heart of the Island Archaeological Project (PACI). Her principal fields of research are : hunter-gatherer societies, ethnoarchaeology, rituals, technological organization, lithic analysis, microwear analysis and experimental archaeology.
At present, she is a founder member of the commission Human Occupations in Mountain Environments of UISPP.
She has been invited researcher/professor in La Plata National University and Patagonia Nat. University (Argentina), the Superior Council for Scientific Research and the Autonomous Barcelona University (Spain), Federal University of Minas Gerais, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brasil), the National School of Anthropology and the Autonomous National University (Mexico), the Field Museum of Chicago (USA), the Republic University (Uruguay) and lectured in other academic institutions in America and Europe.
Hunter-gatherer societies in the extreme South of South America:
approaches from experimental and ethnoarchaeological research
ABSTRACT：Tierra del Fuego is one of the southernmost insular territories of the planet. Located at the southern tip of South America, it was inhabited by hunter-gatherer populations since the end of the last glaciation,around 12.000 years ago, and until the beginnings of the twentieth century.
Research developed in many archaeological sites by different archaeological teams along the last forty years gives today a clear image of strategies adopted by hunter-gatherer societies in the occupation of the Island: steppes with hunter- gatherers adapted to exploitation of continental resources in the northern part of the island, and coasts of the Beagle Channel with sea littoral adaptations by canoe Indians in the south.
The main goal of my research is to study the characteristics of human occupation in the mountainous region of the centre of the Island, a region with a variety of environments with lakes, peat bogs and clearings, but essentially dominated by the sub- Antarctic forest.Fieldwork let discover archaeological sites in different locationsand a wide functional variability: different campsites and a ceremonial site.
Research was undertaken from the point of view of ethnoarchaeology, considering the richness in information provided by informants and ethnographic texts. It required designing specific strategies for field work, as well as interdisciplinary analysis of archaeological materials, including experimental archaeology, spatial archaeology, techno-functional analysis, etc.).Results obtained let draw a comprehensive model of hunter-gatherers sub-Antarctic adaptations, which is being used to compare with their counterparts in Sub-Arctic environments.
Techno functional analysis of lithic artifacts and the interpretation of technological organization: theory and examples from South America.
ABSTRACT：Microscopic analysis of use-wear traces is the method which allows studying archaeological tools function, as well as the post-depositional processes that these tools had to undergo during their taphonomical history.Since its beginnings, with investigations by S. Semenov in the Soviet Union Academy of Sciences around the 40’s, and the translation into English of his book “Prehistoric Technology” in 1964, interest in this type of analysis grew considerably. However, from that moment on, due to its development principally in Western Europe, microscopic analysis of use wear traces became oriented principally to archaeological artifacts made on cryptocrystalline siliceous sedimentary rocks (sílex). So, one of the principal interests of my investigations in South America was to expand the scope of application of functional analysis methodology to other raw materials (rhyolites, volcanic rocks, quartz, etc.).
At the same time, I sought to link it with technological analysis, within an approach called “techno-functional analysis of archaeological materials”. We define technology as the series of knowledge and activities put into practice for materialization of two processes: production of goods and social reproduction. Technology implies at the same time to exploit natural resources and to establish social relations for the production and use of goods and, from this point of view, it can be seen as the real mediator of the interrelationship society-environment.
This approach of techno-functional analysis is exemplified with studies from archaeological contexts of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, where we tried to put into evidence interrelationship between raw material – manufacturing technique – artifact morphology, as well as between them and tool use, seeking a deeper characterization of contexts of tool production and use, within the scope of technological strategies.
