This dissertation offers new theoretical insights and empirical data that supplements some of the classic models of occupation of Amazonia. Through a combination between empirical data and current knowledge, the dissertation proposes a history of occupation of the Central Amazon region that places cultural groups integrated in a complex socio-political system extending beyond ethnic, linguistic and environmental boundaries as its main agents. The material correlates of this system, which developed from around the beginning of the Christian era and reached until the eleventh or twelve century AD, would be pottery and associated contexts of the Incised Rim tradition. This intricate macroregional network, in effect an Interaction Sphere, includes such features as a standardisation of communication systems expressed in material culture and in forms of using and organizing space. The chronology presented in this dissertation also provides pointers to reassess the use of traditional archaeological concepts such as phases and traditions. It employs these categories with some flexibility inasmuch as the sets of artefacts that have been studied show inherent fluidity in their definitions. In the confluence area of the Negro and Solimões rivers, this permits unravelling a history that is based on an understanding of the relationships between the Açutuba, Manacapuru and Paredão phases.
|
