Late Holocene guanaco hunting grounds in southern Patagonia: blinds, tactics and differential landscape use

Abstract

Research in two distinct steppe landscapes in southern Patagonia-the western basaltic plateaux and the central Deseado Massif-compares hunter-gatherer strategies in the two environments, focusing on the use of hunting blinds and associated tactics in the hunting of guanaco. The evidence obtained brings this region into discussions about the use of rocky structures and the recognition of tactics used for hunting ungulates in a global perspective. The authors also emphasise the importance of highland settings as major and reliable sources of critical resources for foraging peoples, a topic still not fully appreciated in archaeological studies of hunter-gatherers.