Cultural Behaviors of Indigenous Populations and the Formation of the Archaeological Record in Amazonian Dark Earths: The Asurini do Xingú Case Study

Conclusion

Every archaeological record is a contemporary phenomenon, formed by material remains that were deposited, formed and transformed by many natural and cultural factors, called formation processes. Natural formation processes take place after deposits are built and affect them, either by destroying them or contributing to their preservation. Among these natural events formation processes are intemperism, erosion, sedimentation, and the action of biological agents such as soil fauna and flora. Cultural processes, on the other hand, are those related to the human behavior during the production, use and discard of material items, which result in a certain configuration of the archaeological record. They also refer to every subsequent cultural intervention. For instance, the reoccupation of archaeological sites by distinct populations, the reuse of archaeological materials, and the activities of the archaeologists themselves when discovering and analyzing material remains (Schiffer, 1975, 1976, 1983, 1987).

An interpretation of Amazonian Dark Earths can only be successful once the natural and cultural processes that played a role in their formation have been understood. The Asurini case presents one possible example of cultural activities that could have influenced the formation of this kind of archaeological record. More ethnoarchaeological research must be carried out and new cultural groups must be studied so that we can register the variability of cultural behavior and build more complex explanatory hypotheses about archaeological sites.

Intemperism are events and processes of the natural environment that impinge upon artifacts and archaeological deposits.