Carolina A. Belmar, Omar Reyes, Ximena Albornoz, Augusto Tessone, Manuel San Román, Flavia Morello and Ximena Urbina

This paper presents the results of the study of the microfossil content of the human dental calculus of 49 individuals from 17 archeological sites of the Chiloé and Los Chonos archipelago with chronologies between ~4400 to 300 years cal BP. The previousδ13C y δ15N stable isotope values of the inhabitants of this area revealed an eminently marine diet for these hunter gatherers. Nevertheless, in relation to their predominant diet, the consumption of plant resources has remained unseen. The integration of this type of evidence has allowed us to detect the consumption of seaweed, wild and domesticated plants, some with medicinal and psychoactive properties, in addition to the functional use of the oral cavity based on the presence of remains of plant stems used in basketry. Finally, the presence of domesticated plants in the northern archipelagos constitutes a bio-indicator of archaeological remains that allows us to project contacts between different cultural pathways of the marine hunter gatherers and horticultural groups throughout the temporal sequence.

This article presents the results of radiocarbon datings and stable isotopes analyses (13C, 15N, and 18O) of seven individuals, four infants and three adults recovered from pre-Hispanic mortuary contexts in the Andean foothills of the Atacama Region (Chile). The datings obtained and contextual data suggest that the mortuary contexts correspond to archaic hunter-gatherer individuals from Las Ánimas complex, Copiapó Culture, and from Diaguita-Inca groups. Diet analysis, in turn, point to differences in vegetable consumption between hunter-gatherers and ceramic groups, since the δ13C values of the first group are located in an intermediate position between C and C plants, whereas the δ13C values of the second group show a tendency to higher consumption of C 344 plants. The δ15N values show no significant differences regarding terrestrial meat intake between both groups. The δ18O values suggest that the mobility of the individuals analyzed was circumscribed within environments similar to the area where they were buried; however,, higher δ18O rates can be observed in the hunter-gatherer individuals. These results are the first of their type in this study area and add to the scattered existing data for the Atacama Region.

In this paper we propose explanatory hypotheses about the sexual politics that were from time to time implemented in the configuration of the Pampa del Tamarugal formative community, with the aim to contribute to the archaeological study of social reproduction. The bioanthropological collections of the Tarapacá 40 Cemetery underwent an osteological survey, designed to identify their sexual and age structure. A significant number of contextual references were recovered, and an exploratory analysis of the variation in the sex-age structure of some cemeteries in the region was carried out. The results show a cemetery with all age ranges and a 1:1 sex ratio. On a regional scale, a dichotomous distribution was observed between archaic and formative cemeteries, based on the ratio between adult women and non-adults. We propose that social relations of reproduction and sexual division of labor between the late archaic and the formative society underwent radical transformations, the most direct impact of which could be the social control of female sexuality through the establishment of a kinship-based socio-political regime.

This paper analyzes metric femoral morphological variation among historic populations (17th, 18th, and 19th centuries). Variables analyzed in this study include maximum femoral length, epicondylar breadth, vertical head diameter, anterior-posterior subtrochanteric diameter, medial-lateral subtrochanteric diameter, midshaft circumference and the subtrochanteric index. These variables are compared by sex, chronological period, and socio-economic status to assess morphological change and contribute to understanding population variability and the process of miscegenation. In addition, two other comparative samples, one pre- Hispanic from the same study region, and the other, medieval Spanish, are used as references for ancestral groups. The results obtained from the subtrochanteric index make it possible to differentiate between groups with different biological ancestry. These results are discussed in relation to the available historical demographic information and previous bioarchaeological investigations.