Phil Riris

Prospects and potential for late Holocene archaeology in the eastern La Plata basin: the case of the southern Jê

Supervisor: David Wheatley

Abstract:

In the Interior Atlantic Forests of eastern South America, distinctive types of ceremonial funerary mounds, domestic architecture and ceramics form the crux of the southern Jê signature in the material record. This paper will introduce this culture and discuss the current state of our knowledge on their arrival and development in northern Argentina and southern Brazil. Their importance will be underscored with reference to their place in the grand narratives of South American archaeology – ethnogenesis, migration/diffusion, socio-political complexity, enculturation of natural landscapes – and summarized with some objectives for future research.

email: P.Riris@soton.ac.uk