02.02.2023

Long-Term History, Interaction, and Change: The role of language dispersals and exchange networks at the Amazon estuary (AD 0 – 1650).

Colloquium by Bruno de Souza Barreto

­

Time: Thursday, 2.02.2023, 1pm sharp

Location: Rümelinstraße 23, Room 602 or via Zoom

Speaker: Bruno de Souza Barreto

Title: Long-Term History, Interaction, and Change: The role of language dispersals and exchange networks at the Amazon estuary (AD 0 – 1650).

Abstract:

At the time of the European invasion, it is said that some parts of Amazonia were characterized by the existence of plural multi-ethnic and multi-lingual social formations. Although it is now known that distinct gradients in population density and political structure existed across different Amazonian settings, some general patterns are also clearly visible. The transition to AD 1000, e.g., is coupled with major socio-political changes throughout the Amazon, when the increase of cultural diversity, conflict evidence, and large-scale integrated societies are seen in the archaeological record. Such a process is evident in Lower Amazon, and it is partially related to the demographic growth for the last five centuries before the European invasion. In the regional setting of Amapá and the Amazon estuary, those transformations are also present through the appearance of a plethora of ceramic styles, modes of deposition, as well as the inception of megalithism and other forms of monumental engineering. These changes seem to be an outcome of phenomena ignited by a two-folded process: 1) the cultural transmission historically given by long-term linguistic expansions and 2) the supposedly strengthening of interaction networks during the last centuries before the European arrival, which could have produced ethnogenesis processes by means of assimilation, intermarriage, war, trade, and borrowings. This presentation aims to discuss the emergence of this cultural mosaic at the mouth of the Amazon River, considering particularly the Amapá coast and hinterland, and raise some hypotheses on borders, interaction, and change in this setting.

We welcome you all to join us in person or via Zoom, where we will send around the specific link on the day before the talk.  Please contact marisa.koellnerspam prevention@uni-tuebingen.de for more information.