How humans have transformed the Atacama Desert from the late Pleistocene to the present

Attendance is either in-person at the McDonald Institute Seminar Room or online (please register here).

How humans have transformed the Atacama Desert from the late Pleistocene to the present (Calogero M. Santoro)

Universidad de Tarapacá

Instituto de Alta Investigación

Laboratorio de Arqueología y Paleoambiente

Arica, Chile

Like many ecosystems on the planet (deserts of Australia, or the Amazon), the Atacama Desert is a human artefact that has evolved, since the Pleistocene (ca 12,000 year ago), as consequence of natural factors, and human interactions. Human demands and impact on the ecosystems of this Desert, have arisen stronger from the 19th century to present days. This talk presents some of the socio-environmental processes that have contributed to its current physiognomy, a way of doing an archaeology involved in the debates and possible solutions for the present and future sustainability of the planet, and to move away in some way from the archaeological scientism of reconstructing the past per se.