Chairs:

Lucas Bueno This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Laboratório de Estudos Evolutivos Humanos/ Universidade de São Paulo

Adriana S. Dias This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul.

In this session we will discuss the peopling of the Americas from a data set related to Brazilian archaeological contexts. The data available for the period between 12-10.000 BP shows evidence for the occupation of different regions of Brazil at the onset of the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary. For this period we have many sites with reliable contexts in different regions, including the Amazon region, the northeast, central and southern Brazil. This context points to an early process of expansion, diversification and consolidation for the occupation of all the Brazilian territory that has important outputs to the discussion of the dynamics and adaptations involved in the process of the peopling of the Americas. Our aim in this symposium is to synthesize all the available data for this period to discuss the dynamic occupation process related to the entry and colonization of still uninhabited places. We intend to explore the decision making processes related to migration movements and reproduction processes of human groups that could sustain and make successful the colonization of large areas and very different ecosystems, as has been discussed for other regions of the continent.

Chairs:

Natalia Carden, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it FACSO – UNCPBA, Olavarría, Av. Del Valle 5.350.

Rocío V. Blanco This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it FCNyM-UNLP, División Arqueología, Paseo del Bosque s/n, La Plata

The complexity of the process of the peopling of America is manifested in the continuous debates concerning the temporal depth of the entrance to the continent, the possible routes which were followed, the subsistence, mobility and settlement systems of the first huntergatherers, and the ecosystems which were the scenery of the early adaptations. However, the discussions about the artistic repertory of these human groups and its function in the early social dynamics have not been so extensively developed. This can be due to the fact that the evidences of early art in America are not as abundant as the artistic manifestations of other continents, such as the European Paleolithic art or the Pleistocenic Australian rock art. However, another reason may be a lack of confidence in rock art because of the difficulty of associating it with stratigraphic archaeological contexts. However, in the last decades, on one hand due to the development of new analytical techniques such as AMS radiocarbon dating, and on the other hand because of the theoretical shifts which have generated new questions about these early societies, rock art has been progressively incorporated to the archaeological agenda, and its potential to offer scientific explanations about the social phenomena has been increasingly valued. Given this situation, this session invites the participants to present papers concerning the topic of the artistic manifestations of the first colonizers of America, including evidences of rock art and portable art which can be associated with the archaeological contexts from the late Pleistocene/early Holocene transition.

The topics to be debated in this session are related with the following aspects:

- the dating of the artistic manifestations and their associations with stratigraphic contexts,

- the analysis of the production processes of early art,

- the role of art in the social dynamics of the Pleistocene/Holocene transition, considering its relationships with the settlement systems and the mobility of the hunter-gatherers,

- the function of art as a communication system,

- the evaluation about the causes of the scarcity of these kinds of evidence,

- the explanation of the stylistic similarities and differences between various regions.

Chairs:

Victor Acuña Alonso. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Laboratorio de Genética Molecular. Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Tlalpán. Ciudad de México.

Virginia Ramallo This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Laboratorio de Genética Molecular Poblacional. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Celular. CONICET-CIC. La Plata. Buenos Aires.

Josefina M. B. Motti. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Laboratorio de Genética Molecular Poblacional. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Celular. CONICET-CIC. La Plata. Buenos Aires.

During the last 30 years, Biological Anthropology has given rise to a new discipline known as Molecular Anthropology. Advances in DNA analysis techniques have provided essential trails to characterize populations and have contributed to the knowledge on human diversity and the events involved in this process. Indeed, the analysis of DNA from ancient remains has also been useful to study past diversity. Thus far, we consider that the exchange and sharing of knowledge among the different perspectives studying the same phenomenon is fundamental. As part of the V International Symposium "The Early Man in America” to be held in Argentina and with dialogue as an emblem, we propose to include the session entitled: "Mutations tell. Molecular markers as evidence of the peopling process in America". Its objectives are:

1. To encourage the development and diffusion of research lines and projects linking populations with molecular and archaeological studies.

2. To discuss the current state of the art about the diversity of Native American lineages of mitochondrial and Y chromosome DNA available to the scientific community.

3. To contribute to the discussion about different peopling models reported by other sources of information.

4. To promote the diffusion and regional integration of research studies aimed at identifying population continuity or rupture phenomena, comparing results obtained from ancient with those from present DNA. The main topics to be developed during this session concern:

- New findings in current diversity. Implications for the interpretation of the peopling processes

- Ancient DNA: extraction, processing and analysis. Progress and prospects.

- Computational models

- Molecular findings and their inclusion into a global context

- Lineage antiquity and dispersal

- From Archeology to Genetics and vice versa. Multidisciplinary research

Other topics might also be included as long as they are related to the central issue of the meeting on “The Early Man in America”.

Chairs:

Cristina Bayón. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Departamento de Humanidades. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Bahía Blanca.

Darío Hermo. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it FCNyM-UNLP, División Arqueología, Paseo del Bosque s/n, La Plata. CONICET.

This session constitutes a forum for those researchers interested in assessing any of the several issues concerning technology and material culture of Amercia´s first inhabitants. It is a general session which includes descriptions of study cases, methodological proposals or theoretical discussions about materiality. Its main interests are all the technological productions and it comprises all the raw materials that have been preserved in the record. As in archaeology in general, technology and lithic artifacts in special, have occupied an important role in the construction of our knowledge about the first inhabitants of the continent. That is why in the last decades several aspects concerning raw material acquisition, manufacturing techniques, designs, use and transport of goods have been analyzed. The ideas concerning technology and objects have recently suffered deep changes. Yet, objects continue being one of the main sources of information about the past. Currently the perspectives which study material culture are broadening, including those which involve the dialogue between people and objects, social practices containing objects, procedures and abilities involved in technologies and the historical trajectories of objects. In other words, technology is seen as a phenomenon comprising material, social and symbolic aspects in a complex network. We propose to create an environment where diverse perspectives and methodologies concur to enhance our knowledge about the first inhabitants of the continent.

Chairs:

Mónica Salemme, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Lab. Geología del Cuaternario, CADIC – CONICET. Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.

Laura Marchionni, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it FCNyM-UNLP, División Arqueología, Paseo del Bosque s/n, La Plata. CONICET.

Since the Ameghino-Hrdlicka debate the hypotheses about the coexistence and or exploitation of the late Pleistocene fauna has been one of the most recurrent topics among the researchers of the First Americans. This theme, which was reconsidered with great interest in the 1970s in relation to Paul Martin’s theory, has still some aspects which have not been solved. At present, the studies of the archaeofaunas of the earliest sites require the integrated work of archaeologists and paleontologists. Therefore, research on this issue results both an adequate background for posing hypotheses about the paleoenvironments, and about the use of the fauna by the initial populations. In this context, the debate about the role of human beings in the process of the massive extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene has been central. In the last decades, these hypotheses have been enriched by a large body of proxy data, which have made the paleoenvironmental reconstructions more accurate. Thus, in order to recreate the different sceneries in which the colonization of the First Americans had place, the hypotheses of the presence and use of the megafauna may be contrasted with data on microfauna, pollen, phytoliths, diatomes, isotopes, as well as glaciological and radiocarbonic analyses.

Chairs:

Nora Flegenheimer, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Área Arqueología y Antropología –Museo Municipal de Ciencias Naturales- CONICET, Necochea.

Laura Miotti, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it FCNyM-UNLP, División Arqueología, Paseo del Bosque s/n, CONICET. La Plata.

The peopling of America is a field of research with a continuously increasing database, which opens the possibility for multiple interpretations. The objective of this session is to discuss the new hypotheses about the peopling of America from the regional, 11 macroregional and continental scales. This central debate in the history of the research about the First Americans has been the scenery of extreme and intermediate positions in which different kinds of academic and extra-academic issues have come into play. Presentations in this session necessarily will address a large spatial scale and a temporal scale related to the early peopling of the continent. We invite authors to present their models and visions about the peopling of America. Topics concerning when, from where and how rapidly the American continent was peopled will be most welcome.

Chairs:

Rafael Suaréz, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Departamento de Arqueología. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Universidad de la República. Montevideo.

Eduardo Corona: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Centro Regional INAH Morelos, México. México.

The objective of this session is to present the results from new investigations related to specific problems of particular regions referring to the peopling of America. The presentation of new data and research at different spatial scales is expected to generate a discussion which will be useful for the advancement of knowledge in the various regions. This session will hopefully produce an advance in regional peopling models and promote a debate about the mobility and human communication in the continent, which will help to assess the environmental and archaeological variety that characterizes the New World.