Archaeological Discovery 2014. Vol.2, No.1, 1-5 Published Online January 2014 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ad ) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ad.2014.21001 Prehistoric Maritime Domain and Brazilian Shellmounds Gustavo Peretti Wagner 1 , Lucas Antonio da Silva 2 1 STRATA-Consulting in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2 Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil Email: arqueologia.strata@gmail.com , lucas_vc1@hotmail.com Received September 3 rd , 2013; revised October 21 st , 2013; accepted November 14 th , 2013 Copyright © 2014 Gustavo Peretti Wagner, Lucas Antonio da Silva. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In accordance of the Creative Commons Attribu- tion License all Copyrights © 2014 are reserved for SCIRP and the owner of the intellectual property Gustavo Peretti Wagner, Lucas Antonio da Silva. All Copyright © 2014 are guarded by law and by SCIRP as a guardian. For at least six thousand years, the Brazilian coast has been explored extensively by different fishing communities. This article deals with the fishing-gatherer societies as coastal communities proposing an interface between shell sites archaeology and maritime anthropology. Keywords: Halieutics; Coastal Populations; Shellmounds (Sambaquis); Fishing Communities Introduction This paper is the result of the research of the authors in their different areas of expertise, fishers-gatherers from the samba- quis and ethnoarchaeology of fishing. Both fields present mari- timity as a structuring element for social relations and identity. Considering the contact with bibliography about the Brazilian coast fisher populations in the social sciences (anthropology, sociology, history and archeology), the initiatives were com- bined and circumscribed within the scope of halieutics and its materiality. In the 1970s, archaeological research in sambaquis began to investigate dietary patterns and exploitation environments. As a result, an archaeological culture primarily based on fishing was characterized. Thus, the immediate association between shell mounds and a population with a diet based on collecting shell- fish was proved erroneous. In this sense, the following pages seek to understand the populations of sambaquis as an emi- nently fishing population. Therefore, we will present and sys- tematize concepts from Social Anthropology of fishing whose genesis lies in ethnological studies of the traditional fishing communities of the Brazilian Atlantic coast. Anthropology and Fishing Communities Considering that the sciences present a series of pre-estab- lished theoretical categories that successfully express different aspects of the broad cultural universe of coastal societies, the pages that follow propose a systematization of what was se- lected by the researches as correlatable categories regarding sambaquis. In this sense, they are understood as problems to be addressed under the bias of material culture, providing oppor- tunities to understand maritimity partially. Anthropological studies devoted to fishing populations of the Brazilian coast have contributed significantly to understand the internal social relations, the specialization of gender activities, the process of mechanization and the appreciation of traditional halieutics knowledge (Veríssimo, 1970 [1895]; Lopes, 1938; Câmara-Cascudo, 2002 [1954]; Mourão, 2003 [1971]; Lima, 1978; Furtado, 1987; Maldonado, 1994; Diegues, 1997, 2004). However, the efforts to systematize the material apparatus linked to traditional and indigenous fishing are rare. The works by Lopes (1938) and Câmara-Cascudo (2002 [1954]) are real exceptions. It is precisely to this aspect that Archeology, more than any other discipline, can contribute. Maritimity and Prehistory The interaction with the oceans is an integral part of the processes of expansion and human settlement on the emerged lands of the planet. In the early stages of the process of human evolution oceans were responsible for defining borders. How- ever, at at some point, still unknown, the mastery of water masses through the use of vessels enabled boundary expansion, the connection of continents and humanization of new lands. More than 50,000 years ago, Homo Sapiens came from East Asia and used the Southern Indian to colonize Australia and there is no evidence that a passage emerged between the two throughout the Quaternary. In the Mediterranean world, there are similarities between the North African Acheulean and the Spanish and southern Italian, which may indicate a flow of people and objects crossing the sea (Bordes, 1978). The initial colonization of the New World may be the re- search topic in which maritimity bears greater responsibility. José de Acosta, in the sixteenth century, supports the mono- genist and overseas origin of the Amerindians found here (Mattos, 1941; Rivet, 1958; Willey, 1966; Schobinger, 1969; Lorenzo, 1978; Lavallée, 2000). Rivet (1958) admits a multiple origin through transpacific migrations. The main and most in- tense migratory route would be the mongoloid via Bering Strait, accompanied by migration in vessels using the Aleutian Islands as warehouses. The fronts of Melanesian settlements would have reached the Pacific coast of America through the Polyne- sian islands. Finally, Australian waves would have circumna- vigated the Antarctic through the southern seas. 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