Ecología de poblaciones de especies cultivadas

The peopling of the Americas has been one of the most controversial topics in archaeology, with no consensus about the dates of arrival of the first settlers, number of migratory waves entering the continent or their migration routes. However, it is generally agreed that this was the last major continental mass to be populated by humans, and specifically by one or more small groups of Asian settlers who crossed to the new lands through Beringia, and since then remained isolated from the rest of the world until the European colonisation of the Americas6_{(Fix, 2002; Hey, 2005;}

Wang et al., 2007).

The site of Monte Verde in southern–central Chile has played a central role in the debate of the time of arrival of the first settlers, with evidence of occupation dated around 14,800 calibrated years ago (Dillehay & Collins, 1988). Although this site is located 1,300 km south of the Coquimbo Region (the distance from London to Madrid), there is evidence of late Pleistocene occupation in the Coquimbo region as old as 13,000 calibrated years before present in creeks Quereo and Santa Julia near Los Vilos (Jackson et al., 2007).

Continuing occupation of hunter–gatherers from both Paleoindian and Archaic periods7_{has been}

documented archaeologically, followed by the appearance of sites with evidence of early stages of agriculture (corn, beans and quinoa), animal rearing (llama) and pottery between years 0-800 CE known as cultural complexes El Molle and Las Ánimas (Troncoso & Pavlovic, 2013). There is no agreement regarding the origins of these practices, which are archaeologically similar to those ob- 6_{There is evidence of previous contacts with populations from Scandinavia (Ingstad, 1970; Ingstad & Friis, 1969) and}

Polynesia (Roullier et al., 2013; Storey et al., 2007) proposed for North and South America respectively. However, systematic contacts with effects on gene flow are unlikely.

7_{Terminology used to divide prehistory of the Americas differs to that used in the Old World: Paleoindian refers to the}

era of hunter-gatherers of extinct fauna before 10,000 BP. This is followed by the Archaic period characterised by hunter– gatherers of modern fauna. The period when domestic species appeared is referred generally as Formative. This schema is attributed to Willey and Phillips (1985, reprinted by Phillips 2001).

1.3. Study Population: The Agricultural Communities of Chile 45 served in the Argentinian Northwest, and could have been adopted by hunter–gatherers or product could be product of population replacement (Troncoso & Pavlovic, 2013).

From 900 CE to 1500, the region was inhabited by a group known as Diaguita (Ampuero et al., 1989), which is archaeologically defined by a particular pottery style and burial pattern. This group occupied a continuous area corresponding to today’s Northwest Argentina and the Atacama and Coquimbo Regions in Chile. According to archaeological records (Rodríguez et al., 2004) farming, llama and alpaca herding were their main subsistence activities.

From 1470 until the arrival of Europeans in 1537, local native groups in the Coquimbo Region were invaded, and eventually conquered, by the Inca Empire. Archaeological records show an increase in defensive structures (pukaras) followed by the adoption of Inca styles in pottery (Ampuero et al., 1989).

Although the native population was likely to be diminished after the Inca invasion, there were still around 30,000 people by the time of the first contacts with Spanish groups. Shortly after Spanish arrival and the beginning of the pandemic spread of diseases among Native Americans, the native population in the area started to decline (Lorandi et al., 1988). According to the Spanish chronicles of the time, there were no more than 3,000 natives by 1544 (Ampuero, 1978).

In those times, mining was the main activity in the southern part of the Spanish Empire. The ‘Norte Chico’ was bordered by some of the most important mines to the north in the middle of the desert. The Region of Coquimbo then became the main source of food and fuel to be used by people working in the mines, leading to an intensive use of lands as a source of firewood and for grain and meat production. It is in this period when livestock and cattle were introduced (Gallardo, 2002). These processes led to land deterioration due to intensive farming, overgrazing, and logging (Dubroeucq, 2004; Santander, 1993).

Economic activities were developed in large estates of plantations and animal herding, known as ‘Haciendas’and ‘Ranchos’ respectively. The economy of the Spanish colonies in the Americas was based on land and administrative rights granted by the Crown to high–rank soldiers who were in charge of these estates. In most parts of Spanish America, the workforce contained varying proportions of African slaves and a system of indigenous slavery known as ‘encomienda’: the land grantee was responsible of conversion of the natives to the Christian faith, and they were obliged to work in return for the Christianising efforts on the part of the slave–owner. These two forms of workforce were complemented by paid work of low–rank Spanish soldiers, especially in places with reduced native population. However, the specific composition of the workforce in the estates of the Region of Coquimbo is unknown: while historians argue high importance of a Spanish workforce

1.3. Study Population: The Agricultural Communities of Chile 46 due to the lack of native population (Castro & Bahamondes, 1984; Mellafe, 1981), a study on protein markers in these populations supports a trihybrid European–Amerindian–African model (Acuña et al., 2000). This research will try to address this problem in Chapter 4.

In most of Latin America, rules of indivisible inheritance through primogeniture (majorat) and pay- ment of dowries in form of land, led to the concentration of property in few enormous private estates, known as ‘Latifundios’. But this was not the case in the Region of Coquimbo where a com- munal system of collective land ownership emerged. The origins of this land management system are unknown, but there are three main hypotheses. Santander (1993) supports a Pre–Hispanic origin, based on the Andean system of cooperative work known as Minka in Quechua, and still practised today among Quechuas and Aymaras in Peru and Bolivia. Another proposal is that it emerged as a new inheritance system of land grants, replacing the principle of primogeniture with a form of non–partible multigeniture, as a way of coping with the poor conditions for agriculture and the scarcity of workforce (Gallardo, 2002). Finally, Castro & Bahamondes (1986) propose this system as a new form of labour organisation among abandoned estate workers, because of the retirement of landlords once the land was useless for profitable large-scale agriculture.

Whatever the case may be, it is generally agreed that land deterioration made the system of large- scale production counterproductive by the end of the 18th_{century. Since then, agriculture gradually}

lost its economic importance in favour of livestock rearing; and through replacement and trans- formation, the colonial system of land tenure, economy and subsistence changed to the organisa- tion distinctive of the Agricultural Communities today.

During the last two centuries the Agricultural Communities have faced challenges such as further land deterioration due to economic booms in both mining and wheat production during the 19th

century, struggles to gain legal recognition of their system of land tenancy (achieved in 1968), and multiple changes in their access to land usage due to political reforms, such as the first Agrarian Reform from 1965 to 1970 by a Christian Democrat government, the second Agrarian Reform from 1970 to 1973 lead by a Socialist government, and the Counter-Reform from 1973 to 1989 led by a right–wing dictatorship, which affected the control of peasants over productive land in rural areas (Alexander, 2008; Gallardo, 2002). After the return to democracy in 1990, commoners have been gradually registering their land usage rights (now fully recognised and regulated by a special law) with the Land Registry authority. However, sustained changes in wage labour conditions, regula- tions on dairy production, and water usage, are the main threats to the survival of the lifestyle of the Agricultural Communities today (Alexander, 2004).

1.3. Study Population: The Agricultural Communities of Chile 47