Domesticated landscapes of the neotropics: Isotope signatures of human-animal relationships in pre-Columbian Panama

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101195Get rights and content

Highlights

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    Domesticated landscapes better describe the mosaic nature of human control over the Neotropics.

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    A multi-proxy approach (botanical, faunal, and isotopic) can capture anthropogenic impact.

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    Household-level taming and capture recorded on Muscovy ducks, crested guan, and parrots in Panama.

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    Garden hunting was a sustained tactic that promoted human-animal co-habitation.

Abstract

Throughout the New World, we encounter consistent and pervasive evidence that confounds efforts to partition native species into watertight containers labeled “domesticated” and “wild.” This binary categorization cannot resolve the complex relations among modalities and intensities at which human activity influences the local flora and fauna. The concomitant fluctuations in cultural control over the ecosystem, duly reflected in the vegetation and the diet of the animals it nourished, are captured in this study of isotope variations representing the entire range of C3 to C4 resource acquisition patterns inferred from faunal remains from archaeological sites around Parita Bay in central Pacific Panama. Human feeding of captive bird species (e.g., ducks, guan, and parrots) and animal raiding of milpa plots are two good examples of the mutualistic co-habitation of humans and animals. This study utilizes the C4 input into an animal’s diet as a proxy, which, in tandem with inputs from paleobotany and zooarchaeology, greatly improve knowledge about human and animal interactions in tropical landscapes.

Section snippets

Domesticated landscapes

Domestication is a notoriously difficult term to define. Many scholars caution against the misleading assumption that there is a clear dichotomy between wild and domestic plants and animals, or that a nature/culture binary can be established (e.g. Russell, 2002). In this article, we do not attempt to summarize the numerous definitions that emphasize the cultural and biological parameters necessary to identify a specific species as domesticated or not (e.g. Russell, 2002, Zeder, 2015). Instead

Garden hunted or habituated deer?

We argue that deer isotopes are optimal proxies for documenting gradations in the range of human-animal encounters in the wild, the garden, and in human settlements due to its symbiotic relationship with milpa plots. Milpa cultivation is an essential component of New World foodways, not only because diverse botanical resources can be harvested (Atran, 1993, Nations and Nigh, 1980), but also as it provides predictable garden hunting opportunities (Linares, 1976, Reina, 1967). Communities often

Hamlet agriculture period: Late Preceramic (6000–2500 BCE) and early ceramic (2500–500 BCE)1

Archaeological and paleoecological studies of Panamanian Pacific regions provide detailed reconstructions of human impacts on the environment from Paleoindian occupations during the Late Glacial period until initial Spanish contact (summarized in Piperno, 2009, Piperno, 2011b, Piperno, 2006). Paleoindians using fluted projectile points (9000–8000 cal BCE) already began burning and clearing forests. Evidence of human perturbation of local vegetation intensified after 5000 BCE with the advent of

Background

The carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotope ratios obtained from organic (collagen) and mineral (carbonate) components of teeth and bone provide insight into the diet, environment, and geographic origin of the source animal. The delta notation is expressed in terms of per mil (‰) for carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes,δ́ = [(Rsample- Rstandard)/(Rstandard)]*1000

where R = ratios of isotopic abundances of 13C/12C or 15N/14N. The standards utilized were Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite (V-PDB) for C and

Collagen

Descriptive statistics of the collagen and carbonate data for the present study, alongside all databases consulted for comparative purposes, are summarized in Table 2. The collagen isotope results from this study exhibited large variability, with δ13Ccollagen values ranging between −26.3 to −6.3‰ representing animals completely reliant on C3 resources to others relying almost exclusively on C4 products (Fig. 2). In another words, the variability of the δ13Ccollagen values extended the entire

Discussion

It is important to first define the local baselines for interpretation of the carbon isotope values. Norr (1991, 133) documented a broad separation of local samples between C4-maize (-9.8 ± 0.2‰, n = 4) and C3 plants (-28.0 ± 0.8‰, n = 7). She also concluded δ13Ccollagen values of archaeological white-tailed deer (n = 9, mean −20.4‰, SD 1.1), and other fauna including peccary (n = 1), agouti (n = 1), iguana (n = 4), and a dove (n = 1) (−20.9‰, SD 0.9) fall well within the ranges of terrestrial

Conclusions

Throughout the New World, we encounter consistent and pervasive evidence that tends to confound efforts to partition its native species into watertight containers labeled “domesticated” and “wild.” This binary categorization simply cannot resolve the complex, fluid, and inter-related spectra of modalities and intensities at which human activity influences the local flora and fauna. Shifting tidal forces of human-induced co-habitation have long shaped the domesticated landscapes of the

Data availability

All raw data reported in this study can be consulted in the Data in Brief article, N. Sugiyama, C.A.M. France, M.F. Martínez-Polanco, and R. G. Cooke “Collagen and carbonate isotope data of fauna from Pre-Columbian Panama”. Descriptive summary tables and raw data of δ18O values not discussed in this article can be consulted in the same Data in Brief publication. Data gathered from the comparative literature is cited in the text and summarized in Table 2.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Nawa Sugiyama: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization. María Fernanda Martínez-Polanco: Investigation, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization. Christine A.M. France: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Supervision, Writing - review & editing, Visualization. Richard G. Cooke:

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declared that there is no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements

Stable isotope analysis of the materials reported in this study were completed by Sugiyama during her post-doctoral fellowship at the National Museum of Natural History as Peter Buck Fellow under the supervision of C. France and T. Rick. This work was supported by Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute’s Federal and Trust Funds. Sugiyama extends special thanks to Gwénaëlle Kavich for providing access to the FTIR facilities at the Museum Conservation Institute, and to Colin McEwan who

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