Ricerc@Sapienza

The native groups of Patagonia have relied on a hunter-gatherer economy well after the first Europeans and North Americans reached this part of the world. The large exploitation of marine mammals (i.e., seals) by such allochthonous groups has had a strong impact on the local ecology in a way that might have forced the natives to adjust their subsistence strategies. Similarly, the introduction of new foods might have changed local diet. These are the premises of our isotopic-based analysis.

In this article we evaluate the isotopic variability in ?13C and ?15N values of diets among maritime hunter-gatherers of the Beagle Channel (Southern Argentina). A system with two end members –marine and terrestrial resources– is not enough to describe populations with diversified subsistence strategies. Moreover, these marine hunter-gatherers are characterized as highly mobile groups whose foraging ranges comprised not only nearshore areas, but also offshore spaces.