Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Marquet PA
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3443180 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20120813 37
The emergence of complex cultural practices in simple hunter-gatherer groups poses interesting questions on what drives social complexity and what causes the emergence and disappearance of cultural innovations. Here we analyze the conditions that underlie the emergence of artificial mummification in the Chinchorro culture in the coastal Atacama Desert in northern Chile and southern Peru. We provide empirical and theoretical evidence that artificial mummification appeared during a period of incre ...[more]