The Southern Cone

The Southern Cone includes the territories of Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, and southern Brazil. This region was probably the last colonized by Homo sapiens at the end of the Pleistocene. Current evidence indicates a human presence in the region no earlier than the very end of the Pleistocene, at around 12 500 years BP. Late Pleistocene foraging societies evolved through the Holocene in different ways, producing distinct historical trajectories. Foraging was the main subsistence strategy until the arrival of Europeans in Patagonia, the pampas, and in most parts of the campos and Chaco. In some places, especially in the south and central Andes at around 5000 years BP, the domestication of plants and camelids occurred, producing important changes in demography, settlement patterns, technology, and social organization. Some of these societies reached a chiefdom level of sociopolitical organization and in the fifteenth century, became part of the Inca Empire.

The cultural development of the Southern Cone societies is organized in this work following climatic, environmental, and chronologic criteria: Late Pleis-tocene/Early Holocene, Middle Holocene, and Late Holocene. In order to better understand the complexity and diversity of social processes that took place during the Late Holocene in certain geographic areas of the Southern Cone, this period is also divided considering significant cultural changes (i. e., Formative Period, Regional Developments, etc.).