Pantanal has traces that attest to ancient human presence – 01/02/2024 – Science

One of the myths still in vogue about the Pantanal refers to human occupations. Many among us still think of the region as a historically inhospitable environment, which required heroism from those who risked living in one of the largest floodplains on the planet.

This is not the case, show Maria de Fátima Costa and Pablo Diener, retired professors from the Federal University of Mato Grosso and authors of the recently released book “Pantanal – Origens de um Paraíso”. This space, historians write, “has been inhabited by human populations since very early on. Inside, there are multiple remains attesting that the presence of men and women there is quite ancient.”

The publication is not restricted to the ancient history of these people who lived in the region. It also addresses how specific geological configurations, enormous amounts of water and a series of other natural factors gave rise to what we know as the Pantanal, a complex and fragile space like, in the authors’ comparison, “a beautiful castle made of playing cards”.

The book also reconstructs five naturalist expeditions, which took place between 1750 and 1850, which were essential as pioneering studies on the territory.

But what really catches your attention as you read is the description of the characteristics of ancient human occupations. According to Costa and Diener, groups have inhabited the Upper Paraguay River basin for at least 8,000 years.

Those who lived there in this more distant period were skilled in handling stone instruments and survived by collecting, hunting and fishing. They lived on the banks of large lakes surrounded by hills, where the soil was more suitable for agriculture and there was plenty of wood to, among other things, build canoes.

“There is still a lot of talk about unoccupied spaces, without population, which is a Eurocentric pretension. Generalized ignorance prevails”, says Diener to Sheet. “They think of the Pantanal as a desert of water”, adds Costa.

There is no new data in the book — that is not the purpose of the publication. In general terms, the authors reconcile two movements: on the one hand, they reconstitute and contextualize historical records, such as those made by the Spanish colonizer Cabeza de Vaca, who was in the region in the 16th century; on the other, they collate the most relevant recent research on the region, produced in universities, to present them in an accessible way to a wider audience.

In the chapter focused on archeology, Costa and Diener draw attention to two legacies left by the first Pantanal inhabitants. Initially, the rock sites, sets of engravings and paintings on the rock walls of places such as the Gaíva lagoon, in Corumbá (MS).

Recent studies cited by the authors concluded that the figures were inscribed on the stones to help residents measure the water level, taking on the function of calendars. Based on these calculations, they could define, for example, daily rites. In other words, it was a vital graphic language for the daily lives of communities.

In addition to rock sites, the book introduces us to landfills, also called aterradinhos. They are “mounds that project into the landscape, formed by the accumulation of food remains and sediments of various organic materials, covered by layers of earth, vegetation and remains of mollusk shells”. They probably served as a flood protection area and also as markings for dividing territories.

“The cave paintings are immediately visible, but the landfills are not. At first, we think it is an island or a forest capon when, in fact, it is an open-air human archive”, says Costa.

The professor recalls that the most studied landfills to this day are located in the territory of the Guatós, indigenous people of great importance to the history of the Pantanal.

The Spanish conquerors were the first Europeans to reach the floodable area of ​​the Upper Paraguay River basin. When they reached the region at the beginning of the 16th century, they found dozens of different ethnicities. There is no more precise information about the size of these populations, but reports left by the Spanish indicate densely populated places, with a variety of languages ​​and customs.

Among the indigenous groups seen by Europeans in these initial contacts were the Guatós, who still survive, and the Xarayes, extinct. In fact, until the mid-18th century, there was no Pantanal on maps. The region was known as Lagoa dos Xarayes.

Brazil knows little about the exuberance that is the Pantanal. And almost nothing about the human beginnings of the region. Costa and Diner’s book can be a first step towards reducing, even a little, our ignorance.