Caçadores-Coletores da Amazônia Pré-Histórica

Abstract

Regarding the Amazon, there is a considerable number of publications that refer to its ecosystems (terra firme and várzea), and its complex fauna and flora. However, little is known about mankind's evolution within these Amazonian ecosystems. The present work aims to contribute to a better knowledge about the prehistoric hunter-gatherer peoples of the Amazon, more precisely in the Carajás region. An analytical/theoretical bibliographic survey was carried out about the ideas about hunter-gatherers throughout the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. Concomitantly, the morphology and typology of the lithic pieces from Plateau N1, in the Carajás region, was also analyzed. According to the morphological and typological analysis of the lithic material collected from Plateau N1, it was concluded that they are bipolar nucleiform pieces, pieces with micro chipping, bipolar and bipolar chips with chipping and micro chipping, unused raw pieces with chipping residue and with lateral chipping. In relation to the readings carried out, one notices that the development of Amazonian prehistoric man is tried to fit within the evolutionary parameters of the old world, not considering its particularities. A question arises, that one should not simply accept the evolution of Amazonian man according to the pre-established scheme in paleoindian, archaic, formative and complex, without taking into consideration the social heterogeneity in a historical time, the duration of cultural patterns and the peculiar development of regional prehistoric man.