The Development of Prehistoric Complex Societies:

Amazonia, A Tropical Forest

Anna C. Roosevelt
University of Illinois at Chicago and
Field Museum of Natural History

ABSTRACT

Early research in Amazonia suggested the possibility that prehistoric complex societies had developed
in several regions, despite assumptions that humid tropical conditions would prevent such developments.
Under the rubric of cultural ecology, various processes have been hypothesized for the development of
these societies: invasion and subsequent devolution of groups from expanding states in temperate
regions outside Amazonia, social and ecological interactions among regions within Amazonia, and
social adaptation to local ecological variation. The hypotheses differ, but researchers generally employed
ecological determinist and functionalist assumptions of causality: from environment to subsistence
and population and thence to social adaptation. Recent thinking on complex society has distilled the
concept of heterarchy as an alternative to cultural materialist explanations for the processes of formation
and functioning of a range of complex societies. This chapter examines the accumulated data on
complex societies in two Amazonian regions—Marajo Island at the mouth of the Amazon and the
Santarem-Monte Alegre region in the Lower Amazon—in light of the theoretical issues about the
formation and functioning of complex societies worldwide. Results of the comparison tend to accord
more with heterarchical hypotheses than with the earlier cultural ecological hypotheses. In Amazonia,
non-state societies appear to have organized large, dense populations, intensive subsistence adaptations,
large systems of earthworks, production of elaborate artworks and architecture for considerable periods
of time. The more centralized and hierarchical of these societies had developed more ritual and material
culture related to conflict, and had a heavier impact on their environments. The patterns of social
development in Amazonia can still be causally related to environmental patterns through cultural
ecological theory, but the new data suggests the need to envision a more mutualistic, variable, and
complex causal nexus.

PARADIGMS FOR PREEVDUSTRIAL
SOCIAL COMPLEXITY
Amazonia has relevance for theories of complex
societies. Theorists have related the process of social
evolution in Amazonia in different ways to factors
of environment, economy, population, ritual, and
social context (Carneiro 1970; Lathrap 1970, 1974;
Meggers 1971, 1972, 1988; Meggers and Evans
1957; Roosevelt 1980) at a time when there were
little or no relevant archaeological data. Data on the
interaction of such factors in the indigenous
occupation of this region, therefore, can shed light
on the origins and nature of complex human
communities. This chapter, therefore, outlines
Amazonian cultural ecology and culture history in
relation to general theory of complex societies.

13
 14
Early Explanations From
Cultural Ecology
Explaining the rise of complex societies in
prehistory was one of the abiding interests of
archaeologists and social anthropologists through the
1970s and 1980s. During those decades, a rough
consensus about the problem emerged within the
influential theoretical paradigm of cultural ecology
(Cameiro 1970; Flannery 1972, 1976; Fried 1967;
Harris 1968,1979; Price 1984; Sahlins 1972; Sanders
and Price 1968; Service 1975; Willey 1971; Wright
1986; Wright and Johnson 1975).
According to this approach, the rise of complex
societies was a cultural adaptation by growing human
populations to ecologically heterogeneous regions.
Centralized, hierarchical organization, it was
reasoned, was the best possible way to organize
cultural systems in such situations. Centralized
leadership ensured political stability by controlling
succession to rule. Central planners designed and
built large-scale public works that were necessary
for the functioning of the system at several levels.
They created urban centers, routes for transport, and
irrigation systems. Centrally organized intensive
agriculture produced food for the ever-larger
population, and redistribution of harvests evened out
supplies within the large, heterogeneous region.
Armed forces under the leadership of rulers kept the
peace in the densely populated realm and protected
the region from hostile outsiders. Objects of fine art
and monumental architecture were produced and
consumed for use as prestige goods for ruling groups
and their allies.
Heterarchical Explanations
By the 1990s, thinking about the nature and
origins of complex societies has changed somewhat
as ideas about modem societies and natural systems
have changed. Insights into the nature of complex
societies also have emerged from new empirical data
during the period of rethinking. From these changes,
a new general consensus has emerged in the form of
heterarchical approaches, suggesting that complex,
large-scale communities could be organized by
various nonhierarchical, noncentralized methods
implemented in local communities, rather than
mainly in hierarchical forms imposed from the top
Anna C. Roosevelt
down (Arnold 1996; Earle 1987; Ehrenreich et al.
1995; Feinman and Neitzel 1984; Mclntosh, this
volume; Paynter 1989; Price and Brown 1985;
Robertshaw, this volume). Scholars writing about
heterarchy emphasized that there were many different
kinds of complex societies, and varied combinations
of causes in their formation. The evolutionary stages
and typologies did not fit the empirical record either,
so the theoreticians began to retool the models and
explanations. This theoretical shift in anthropology
parallels paradigm shifts in some other research
fields, such as physics, in which chaos theory allows
for more accident, variation, and multiplicity of
causes in large, complex systems (Gleich 1987).
NEW DATA AVAILABLE FROM
FIELDWORK
The idea that early complex cultures developed
because societies needed complex organization to
ensure the welfare of the population and stability of
society did not pan out in fieldwork. Scholars pointed
out that regional-scale ecological and cultural
complexity could be centrifugal politically and act
against stable central rule, rather than encourage it
(Paynter 1989). Uncentralized complex societies had
earlier been assumed by functionalists to be unstable
politically; they were described as "cycling"
endlessly (e.g., Earle 1987; Redmond, Gasson, and
Spencer this volume; Wright 1984). But because of
their broader, grassroots base, heterarchical
formations appear to achieve more political stability
and cultural longevity than hierarchical systems
imposed from above by small ruling groups
(Roosevelt n.d.a). The lack of a supra-regional
central administrative hierarchy did not necessarily
lead to economic collapse or social disorder.
Research on regional sequences also suggested that
local, participatory management of resources tended
to be more stable ecologically than top-down
management by outsiders. Evidence of resource
degradation is more common in periods when
hierarchical, centralized polities held sway, even
when overall population density in the polities was
not much greater than in periods when uncentralized
societies were in charge (Allen, this volume; Piperno
and Pearsall 1998; Roosevelt n.d.a). Furthermore,
prehistoric polities with less centralized and
hierarchical organization appeared to last much
 Prehistoric Complex Societies in Amazonia 15

longer in the archaeological record than those with such as the Inca empire (Morris and Thompson 1985),
strong, superordinate control (Roosevelt 1989,1999a, centralized redistribution seems to have involved a
n.d.a). Examples of long-lived, heterarchical very small subset of resources, manufactured goods,
societies are Northwest coast prehistoric and historic and facilities utilized by elites and their retainers,
cultures (Coupland 1996), the Calusa (Marquardt rather than systematic collection and redistribution
1987, 1988), Middle Woodland societies (Price and of large amounts of goods throughout the societies.
Brown 1985) in North America, the cotton The goal and function of redistribution of goods in
preceramic and initial ceramic cultures of Peru these indigenous complex societies, thus, seem to
(Burger and Salazar Burger 1980; Griederetal. 1988; have differed from earlier theoretical expectations.
Quilter 1985; Roosevelt 1999a), pre-Chin Chinese Rather than ensuring adequate food supplies for the
societies (Chang 1980, 1986), early Vietnamese and general population, centralized redistribution seems
Thai mound-dwelling societies (Higham 1989; to have been aimed mainly at underwriting the
Higham and Thosarat 1998), prehistoric West African economic base and luxury consumption of the ruling
societies (Mclntosh, this volume; Robertshaw, this group (Earle 1997; Helms 1979; Paynter 1989). In
volume), and pre-Dynastic Egypt (Hoffman 1979). the archaeological record, regional populations rarely
Top-down, supraregional, centralized rule, in improved in nutritional status and general health due
contrast, was often characterized by greater to the imposition of a militaristic state administration
ecological disruption and cultural instability, over indigenous, nonstate communities; rather,
Examples are the North American Mississippian skeletal paleopathology shows that local populations
cultures (Smith 1978; Steponaitis 1991), Middle and in nonstate complex societies had a better quality of
Late horizon Peruvian cultures (Keatinge 1988), life (Cohen 1985,1989; Cohen and Armelagos 1984;
dynastic Egypt (Trigger et al. 1983), China after the Cohen and Bennett 1998; Roosevelt 1984, 1999b).
Chin unification (Chang 1986), and the Vietnam delta Presumably because of their reliance on public
cultures after the Han Chinese conquest (Higham opinion, non-state leaders may have collected
1989). quantities of foodstuffs and goods to give away to
Many researchers have concluded that many the general population, as in the "big man" model
complex societies did not operate in ways expected (Sahlins 1963). Without means of coercion,
by the functionalists. For example, the documentary apparently, the elite's capacity to oppress and deprive
data on societies such as the Chimu (Moseley and large numbers of people was quite limited.
Cordy-Collins 1990) and the Maya city states (Potter Another insight from recent research (Roosevelt
and King 1995; Schele and Freidel 1990) showed 1991, 1993, 1999a, n.d.a) is the recognition of the
little evidence of the regional centralized political existence of long-lived, indigenous complex societies
administration, facilities, and management that states with monumental public works and elaborate fine
were assumed to have. Accumulating ethnohistoric art in environments, such as tropical forests, that lack
and archaeological evidence do not show that the substantial regional heterogeneity and
production of everyday food and tools was circumscription that the cultural materialists
necessarily centralized or that these goods were identified as the habitat of state formation (Sanders
necessarily centrally collected and redistributed over and Price 1968). Examples are: the Maya (Lucero,
long distances in complex societies (Earle 1997; this volume; Potter and King 1995); Khmer "city-
Morris and Thompson 1985; Potter and King 1995). states" (Higham 1989); the terra firme Amazonian
In addition, the making of objects of fine art and mound cultures, such as Faldas de Sangay, of the
monumental art and architecture was not restricted Ecuadorian Oriente (Porras 1987); and Marajoara in
to state societies with ruling elites; such objects and the deltaic floodplain at the mouth of the Brazilian
structures also were produced for consumption in Amazon (Roosevelt 1991; Schaan 1997).
many communities lacking a distinct, superordinate Representatives of earlier views of complex societies
elite (Burger 1984; Burger and Salazar Burger 1980; had suggested that even apparently homogeneous
Grieder et al. 1988; Quilter 1985; Roosevelt 1991, rainforests might be heterogeneous in distribution of
1993, 1997, 1999a; Silverman 1990). Even in the key resources such as salt and rock for grindstones
more centralized and hierarchical of these societies, (e.g., Rathje 1972). This issue of the role of resource
 16
distribution on social organization has been debated,
but recent research has not shown that such resources
were under central political control, as envisioned in
the theory, although the elite may have exploited
people's attraction to such resources (e.g., Lucero,
this volume; Potter and King 1995). Thus, Maya
hieroglyphs (Schele and Freidel 1990) do not record
any such systems of administration. Nor are the high
offices recorded in ethnohistoric documents on
coastal Peruvian societies linked to regional
administration of such resources. Rather, they refer
to duties in the household, ritual activities, and
personal grooming of the ruler (Moseley and Cordy-
Collins 1990). Ownership of resources in these cases
appear to belong to local communities, not to the
central ruler. Nevertheless, there are differences in
the development and organization of social
complexity in heterogeneous habitats versus more
uniform habitats in that populations in circumscribed
resource zones generally seem more prone to
conquest and rule by paramounts than populations
in resource areas lacking circumscription (Carneiro
1970; Feinman andNeitzel 1984; Roosevelt 1999a).
Finally, complex society theorists also have now
broadened the range of subsistence economies that
could be the basis for hierarchical regional societies,
Hunting and gathering as well as shifting horticulture
can be seen to have supported the development of
organizational complexity in several parts of the
world (Coupland 1996; Marquardt 1987,1988; Price
and Brown 1985; Roosevelt 1999b). Intensive
agriculture, where practiced, seems to have been a
political economic strategy resorted to by existing
elites, rather than an adaptation to population growth
and a stimulus to initial development of complexity
(Earle 1997).
RECONCILING THE THEORY AND DATA
ON COMPLEX SOCIETIES
Theoretical formulations are abstractions, and,
if pursued and refined purely by logical criteria, can
get quite far away from the particular human groups
whose behavior is being explained. The contrasts
that human societies in particular times and places
present to general theories should be incentives to
rethink the theories. In sorting out the data from actual
archaeological and historical complex societies for
theoretical insights, one task is to redefine what
Anna C. Roosevelt
makes a society complex, since some earlier defining
traits in functionalist cultural ecological theory are
linked to debatable views of causality. Thus,
assessing complexity from the magnitude of public
work systems, a common functionalist methodology
(e.g., Sanders and Price 1968), becomes problematic
if centralized organization is only one of many ways
to execute such projects. Furthermore, if
socioeconomic strata can exist independently of
central rule, then evidence for such strata are not
sufficient evidence for central rule (Roosevelt 1991).
Some independent source of data on political
organization would have to be sought. Similarly,
complexity had sometimes been claimed for sites
merely on the presence of monumental ritual
facilities, based on the assumption that such
complexes would be controlled by rulers (e.g.,
Feldman 1985; Lathrap 1985). But nowadays, it is
recognized that such ritual facilities may or may not
be under central control (Creamer 1996; Quilter 1985;
Roosevelt 1999a; Silverman 1990). Another criterion
used as an index of political and social complexity
had been the existence of fine art, especially large
scale, anthropomorphic art (Meggers and Evans
1957). But here also, the empirical record of
archaeology has raised questions. It has shown that
people in societies without hierarchical central
administrations commonly created large-scale fine
art (Ehrenreich et al. 1995;Griederetal. 1988; Quilter
1985; Quilter et al. 1991; Roosevelt 1991, 1993,
1999a).
The large areal extent and population density
of complex communities remain noncontroversial
criteria for most researchers (but see Coupland 1996
for a discussion of single-community complex
societies), but size and density criteria are not always
applied uniformly, since a priori theoretical
expectations influence the classifications. For
example, the lowland Maya site of Tikal had been
denied urban status initially because its residences
w e r e n o t laid out in the strict grid pattern found at
the highland center of Teotihuacan (Sanders and
p r i c e 1968). Settlement survey, nevertheless,
revealed the plan of a very large urban site with a
specialized central precinct (summarized in Ashmore
1981), Similarly, some sources describe as small,
temporary villages (Meggers 1988), prehistoric
Amazonian settlements whose tens of hectares of
densely occupied areas (Porras 1987; Roosevelt 1980,
 Prehistoric Complex Societies in Amazonia . 17

1991,1997) dwarf the approximately 10 to 20 hectare Quilter 1985) or Formative Central American
areas of early "cities" of Formative Mesoamerica societies (Hoopes 1987).
(Grove 1987) and Mesopotamia (Melaart 1975). In In a society that had graded ranking but lacked
regard to the magnitude and design of public works, major, discrete, horizontal social strata and central
potential evidence for social complexity has not been administration, there might be great differences in
widely recognized (Johnson and Earle 1987; Steward wealth, status, and health between those at the top
and Faron 1959). For example, there are some and bottom of the society, but most people would
lowland cultures whose sites had greater volume of have access to adequate housing, ritual facilities, and
purposeful earth-mound construction (Heckenberger luxury goods. In such societies, there might be war
1996; Porras 1987; Roosevelt 1991, 1997) than captives or low-ranking relations who were poor and
architectural sites in central highland Mexico often ill-fed, but these would be few in number. Some
considered to represent early state societies (Grove Northwest coast societies (Coupland 1996), some
1987). Complexity criteria also have run into trouble Amazonian societies (Nimuendaju 1949), and some
in the assessment of settlement evidence for Classic and Pre-Classic Maya societies, such as those
administrative hierarchies in different regions. For centered at Tikal, Guatemala and Copan, Honduras
the mound systems at the mouth of the Amazon, for (Potter and King 1995), exhibit this pattern of
example, one can impose a three-tier site size differentiation, for example,
classification of single mounds, small groups of three A society with central political administration,
or four mounds, and large groups of 15 to 40 mounds, in contrast, would be expected to have functionally
but the mounds have similar architecture, features, specialized residential settlements with some sort of
and artifacts, regardless of size. Site size hierarchies central facility serving administrative operations. Its
that had been accepted as indirect evidence of central architecture and fine art would be expected to
administration thus may or may not relate to the emphasize centralization, hierarchy and force, if
political economic function of communities anything. If there were distinct hierarchical
(Mclntosh, this volume; Paynter 1989; Robertshaw, socioeconomic groups, the archaeologist would find
this volume). very different qualities of life in different segments
Better criteria for assessing and classifying of the population. The osteology and burial patterns
complexity are the specific patterns of differentiation of certain Classic and especially Post-Classic Maya
within societies, rather than the mere existence of societies seem to show this pattern, as does Moche
differentiation. Thus, among archaeological societies society of north coast Peru (Donnan 1978; Donnan
one could distinguish non-ranked sociopolitical and Mackay 1978). For example, at Tikal and Altar
differentiation, graded socioeconomic ranking, and de Sacrificios, individuals in the richest graves were
major, discrete levels of stratification. taller or had fewer nutritional and infectious bone
In an unranked society, for example, simple pathologies than the people in poorer graves
interpersonal differences would not be accompanied (Haviland 1967; Saul 1972). In Moche sites, the
by consistent qualitative differences in residential skeletons in graves identified as elite by cultural
quality, nutritional and health status, and occupation, criteria were taller and had fewer pathologies than
In a society without central rule, there might be individuals in the numerous graves classified
large, community ritual or political facilities, but culturally as non-elite (Allison 1984).
access to them would not be centralized under the
control of a permanent hierarchy. If, in addition, the PROBLEM-ORIENTED DATA ON
society lacked subordination by force under a long- COMPLEX SOCIETIES IN AMAZONIA
term central leader, the art and architecture would be
expected to lack images such as large, well- Evidence from Amazonia has relevance to the
ornamented persons on thrones lording over groups theories of social complexity discussed in the
of naked or poorly-dressed, abject, small, non-elite previous sections of this article in several specific
persons. An example of such noncentralized, non- ways. It sheds light on the relationship between
stratified complex societies might include Peruvian environmental patterns and the patterns of social
cotton preceramic societies (Grieder et al. 1988; complexity. It also gives evidence of variation in
 18
the relationship between subsistence, population, and
social organization. Another illuminating facet of
Amazonia's culture history is the evidence it gives
of the varying political relationship of fine art and
monumental public works.
In the early days of American archaeology,
Amazonia was thought to lack complex prehistoric
societies, due to isolation from Andean centers of
state formation and to its rainforest environment,
which was thought to prevent intensive agriculture
and population aggregation. The theoretical
background for this early interpretation was the
cultural ecology of Julian Steward (Steward and
Faron 1959), and it flourished briefly during a data
vacuum when there were few generally available
published sources on Amazonian archaeology and
ethnohistory. The view was encouraged by the
observation that modern Amazonian societies
apparently lacked the traits characteristic of
complexity. Following the general Radcliffe-Brown
approach, it was often tacitly assumed by social
anthropologists that the ethnographic societies that
they studied would not be significantly different from
prehistoric societies, as they were both adapted to
the same environment (Maybury-Lewis 1979). At
the time, the culture-busting effects of European
conquest (Porro 1994; Roosevelt 1994) were
unsuspected by many anthropologists. Amazonian
anthropologists, educated before the extensive
application of radiocarbon dating to archaeology,
tended to envision short, simple prehistoric
occupations (Evans and Meggers 1960; Meggers
1952). Even later evolutionary anthropologists tend
to conceive of modern Amazonian societies as
representing a primitive stage in human evolution
(Johnson and Earle 1987), although these recent
Amazonian cultures came into being after the
dislocation, decimation and forced acculturation that
Amazonians underwent in the European conquest
period, and are very different from the late prehistoric
societies that came before them (Heckenberger 1996;
Roosevelt 1993, 1994).
Most ethnographic accounts have depicted
Amazonian Indians as living in small, independent
villages lacking stratification and supra-community
political integration (Hames and Vickers 1983;
Meggers 1971). The accounts suggest that the
tropical forest environment seems to disperse people
in the food quest. Amazonian Indians usually practice
Anna C. Roosevelt
shifting root horticulture and foraging, not intensive
monocrop agriculture. Most art and architecture are
of perishable materials. Permanent monumental
architecture and art are not in evidence, and human
images are relatively rare. Most art represents
geometric images or the animals of the forest and
river habitat, their body parts or markings. There is
no obvious political art, such as images of rulers on
seats or rulers' emblems, and items such as decorated
or representational stools, which are ruler's symbols
in some parts of the world, are not limited to the use
of headmen: elders, children and women going
through certain rituals also customarily sit on the
stools (Kensinger et al. 1975; Roe 1982).
Prehistoric Art
The first archaeological evidence available for
the existence of prehistoric complex societies in
Amazonia consisted of images from prehistoric art,
whose subject matter differed greatly from the
modern images. The prehistoric images had appeared
in publications since the 19th century, but only rarely
in publications in English (Howard 1947;
Nordenskiold 1930). Early theorists of the evolution
of complex society, such as Julian Steward (Steward
and Faron 1959), did not refer extensively to
Amazonian sources in foreign languages. By the
1970s, however, such images had been more widely
published in English-language sources. The images
included large statues of men or women seated on
stools wearing emblems of rank in the Polychrome
Horizon culture of the upper Amazon in Ecuador
(Evans and Meggers 1968), Peru (Lathrap 1970), and
the middle Amazon in Brazil (Hilbert 1968; Howard
1947) and in the Incised and Punctate Horizon
cultures of the lower Amazon (Palmatary 1960).
Early on, archaeological sites had furnished
contextual information for the art, revealing that the
Polychrome Horizon art came from large, discrete
cemeteries in large artificial mounds (Derby 1879;
Hartt n.d.; Netto 1885), and that the Incised and
Punctate art came from features in large garbage
middens and from bell-shaped pits in structures
(Nimuendaju 1949, n.d.). Excavations and surface
collections also show that the local units of the two
supraregional pottery horizons were large, stylistic
regions tens of thousands of square kilometers in size
(Nimuendaju 1949; Roosevelt 1991). Within such
 Prehistoric Complex Societies in Amazonia
local stylistic regions, settlements, facilities,
utilitarian material culture and art objects were
closely similar and comparable in age (Roosevelt
1991), fitting the criteria for true horizon styles,
traditionally associated with the realms of complex
societies in American archaeology (Willey 1971) and
contrasting with the much more variable patterning
of culture within indigenous regions of Amazonia
during the 19th and 20th centuries (e.g., da la Penha
1986).
Ethnohistoric Accounts
Another important body of evidence for the
existence of complex societies in Amazonia is the
corpus of ethnohistoric accounts. Several accounts
had been published before or at the time of cultural
ecologists' first theoretical statements about social
evolution in Amazonia (Acuna 1891; Bettendorf
1910; Medina 1934; Nimuendaju 1949; Porro 1994;
Roosevelt 1991:403-431), but the information was
for the most part not integrated into their explanations
(Steward and Faron 1959). What was interpretively
significant in the accounts were descriptions of
paramount chiefs claiming descent from deities, large
sedentary populations, capital towns, artificial roads
and causeways, intensive agriculture, large-scale
organized warfare, tribute, endogamous elites,
distinct occupational groups, and elaborate rituals of
rank and stratification. The accounts are considered
reliable, since the interpretively significant details
are found in a wide range of independent accounts,
including the observations made during the initial
explorations by Europeans (Medina 1934), as well
as slightly later accounts by seasoned secular (de
Heriarte 1964) and religious administrators
(Bettendorf 1910).
REVISED EXPLANATIONS FOR
AMAZONIAN SOCIAL COMPLEXITY
When such archaeological and ethnohistoric
evidence for complexity was later recognized,
cultural ecologists working in Amazonia expanded
their explanations in several directions. One research
group, although recognizing that complex societies
had existed in the lower Amazon and on Marajo,
suggested that they were the short-lived result of an
invasion from Andean centers of civilization
19
(Meggers 1952, 1971, 1988; Meggers and Evans
1957). These researchers felt that there had never
been dense populations or urban centers in Amazonia,
and that the intrusive complex societies, poorly
adapted for the tropical rainforest environment,
quickly decayed into independent villages,
Another cultural ecologist developed for
Amazonia a corollary of the theory of environmental
circumscription that he had developed for explaining
the rise of civilization in arid uplands regions
(Carneiro 1970). Originally, the circumscription
theory had specified that states would only develop
in rich river floodplains tightly circumscribed by
deserts, the pattern found in the Andes and Nile
regions. The development of irrigation agriculture
j n m e arid, but nutrient-rich, habitats was considered
a k e v element in state formation. Supposedly-
uniform habitats with abundant rain and poor soil,
like tropical rainforests, were not expected to have
indigenous state development, even if the human
populations grew and pressed on the available
resources. Carneiro suggested, instead, that in
Amazonia the difference in faunal resources between
the rich-soil river floodplain and the poor upland
forest w o u i d have resulted in a process of "social
circumscription," leading to the rise of complex
chiefdoms without the development of intensive
agriculture.
Alternatively, I suggested that the existence of
poorer terra firme rainforests around the floodplains
might retard the development of political
centralization and hierarchical social stratification by
serving as a refuge for homesteaders reluctant to
submit to strong, top down political authority
(Roosevelt 1980, 1991).
RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD
RESEARCH
Recent archaeological research in the Amazon
has supplied more data about prehistoric Amazonian
societies for some regions. Geophysical and
topographic survey and stratigraphic excavation on
Marajo and at Santarem/Monte Alegre (Figure 2.1)
(Bevan 1989; Roosevelt 1991, 1993, 1994 nd.b
n d c ) md s u r v e y ^ d excavations in the Upper Xingu
(Heckenberger 1996) and in the Oriente of Ecuador
( P o rras 1987; Salazar 1998) have uncovered
abundant features and structures within mapped sites,
20
Figure 2.1 Map of eastern Amazon showing location of Santarem and Monte Alegre and Teso dos Bichos, Guajara, and
Os Camutins on Marajo Island, Brazil.
allowing interpretations of the composition and
organization of communities. Radiocarbon and
thermoluminescence dating and analysis of
stratigraphy at sites on Marajo and at Santarem/
Monte Alegre have produced data on the
developmental sequence (Quinn et al. n.d; Roosevelt
1991:100-114, 313-314; Roosevelt et al. 1991;
Roosevelt et al. 1996). Archaeobotany and isotopic
chemistry have provided evidence about the history
of the habitat and subsistence, and bioarchaeology
has yielded data on human genetics and health status
during prehistoric times in these regions (Roosevelt
1989,1991:384-384,1998a, b; Roosevelt etal. 1991;
Roosevelt et al. 1996). All these findings shed light
on earlier interpretations of the evolution of complex
societies in Amazonia.
The Polychrome Horizon of Marajo Island
One region that has recently furnished some new
data is Marajo Island at the mouth of the Amazon.
Anna C. Roosevelt
Overall Settlement Patterns
The field studies of the Polychrome horizon
communities in eastern Marajo suggest that they were
very long lived settlements populated by people of
Amazonian genetic affiliation, rather than ephemeral
colonies of foreigners invading from the Andes
(Roosevelt 1991:384-395). The layouts uncovered
by total geophysical surveys and intensive test-
excavation at mound sites such as Teso dos Bichos
and Guajara are those of villages or towns of
numerous large domestic structures, cemeteries, and
middens, not just ceremonial centers empty of
population (Figure 2.2) (Roosevelt 1991:155-384).
Marajoara mounds typically range from one to five
hectares and from three to ten meters high, but rare
mounds are much larger, such as the one-kilometer-
long mound in Os Camutins mound group (Roosevelt
1991:30-40, 156-160). The mounds are composed
of successive earth platforms containing deep stacks
of superimposed domestic house floors; large, multi-
unit baked clay hearth facilities; and cemetery urn
 Prehistoric Complex Societies in Amazonia
Figure 2.2 Marajoara mound group reconstruction, Os Camutins, Anajas River, Marajo Island (after Roosevelt 1991:
Fig. 5.25).
fields that are maintained, repaired, added to and
regularly replaced (Roosevelt 1991:155-384). Such
within-site patterns are those expected for sizable,
long-term occupations, not for small, shifting villages
and temporary camps. Polychrome regional cultural
spheres covered considerable areas, between
approximately 20,000 to 40,000 square kilometers.
Radiocarbon dates show that the cultures had
considerable longevity, many sites were continuously
occupied from shortly after the time of Christ to about
A.D.1100.
In contrast to earlier functionalist
interpretations, the archaeological record provides no
evidence that the large, complex Polychrome horizon
communities represented by these sites were
administered by centralized, hierarchical political
groups. Several hundred major mounds have been
identified, of which about 20 have been surface-
collected or test excavated (Meggers and Evans 1957;
Palmatary 1950, de la Penha 1986; Roosevelt 1991).
Research procedures involved examination of all
major mounds in several Marajo subregions, such as
the Anajas and Lake Arari areas. Statistically, this
number of mounds is an adequate sample for judging
21
the range of variability among the about 200 mound
sites known. Mound sites of the same subperiod differ
greatly from each other in size, but do not differ
dramatically in the kinds of objects or architecture,
Mounds occur either singly, in small groups or in
very large groups (see Figure 2.2), but so far it has
not been possible to demonstrate the existence of
qualitatively distinct sites that might have functioned
as administrative centers.
Within-site Patterns of Residences and Cemeteries
The residences and cemeteries are the only
structures yet uncovered within mounds, and those
mapped or excavated at particular mounds do not
differ one from another in ways that could be
interpreted as evidence of social stratification. This
pattern contrasts with the evidence for special
residences in Formative Mesoamerican settlements
of similar scale (Flannery 1976). Although there
may have been gradations of rank within regional
populations, so far it is difficult to make a case for
distinct, discrete strata. Our 42 stratified random
sample test excavations at the sites of Teso dos Bichos
(Roosevelt 1991) and Guajara (Roosevelt n.d.b) show
22
Figure 2.3 Marajoara urn from Guajara, Anajas River. Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belem (after Roosevelt
1991:Fig.l.l7F).
that houses, which have mud floors and adobe
hearths, contain mainly domestic ceramic wares.
Occasionally a decorated funerary urn will be buried
under the floor of a house, but the great majority are
buried closely together in the cemeteries. The
cemeteries are located near houses toward the edges
of the mounds. More than 40 separate cemeteries
have been surface collected or test excavated, and
several that have been geophysically mapped and test
excavated are slated for broad-area excavation in the
near future (Meggers and Evans 1957; Palmatary
1950; de la Penha 1986; Roosevelt 1991). All
cemeteries reported include the elaborately decorated
pottery as well as plain vessels, but there is no clear
segregation of plain and fancy pottery. In fact,
decorated burial urns with their accompaniments are
sometimes placed within large, plain urns. There is
variation in the number and kind of artifacts buried
with funerary urns, but no uniquely rich burials.
Highly decorated pottery is also found in unroofed
areas of sites. Since this pottery includes very large,
decorated, use-worn cooking and serving dishes and
the remains of special food, such as very large fish
and turtles, it is considered the remains of feasting.
The modeled and painted human images in the
Anna C. Roosevelt
funerary and feasting art (Figure 2.3) do not seem
overtly political. They may bear potent shamanic
symbols, such as rattles and snakes, and there are
objects such as ceramic stools, but there are no known
images of individuals seated on stools holding what
might be emblems of rank or office (numerous
illustrations of Marajoara art are published in
Nordenskiold 1930; Palmatary 1950; de la Penha
1986:190-191; Roosevelt 1991).
Subsistence, Environment, and Population
Subsistence, environment, and population
characteristics in Marajoara sites also differ from
what cultural ecologists expected.
Contrary to the theoreticians' expectations that
complex societies are characterized by intensive
agriculture, Polychrome horizon subsistence is not a
system of intensive, monocrop cultivation but rather
is a mixed system of cultivation and foraging
(Roosevelt 1991:373-395). A wide range of plants
were cultivated. Maize is present, but is very rare,
and the stable carbon isotopes of a sample of
skeletons (N=23) have a wide range of variability,
rarely showing the positive values associated with
staple maize cultivation (17 assays reported in
 Prehistoric Complex Societies in Amazonia
Roosevelt 1991:384-388 and six unpublished assays).
Among the plant foods, native herb seeds and tree
fruits have been identified (Roosevelt 1991:375-
379), and root crops, which are difficult to recover
from archaeological deposits, also may have been
cultivated. Certain water-loving palms with
nutritious fruits were widely cultivated. The fauna
in domestic refuse (Roosevelt 1991:379-384) are
mainly the bones of small fish and small turtles,
which are the most abundant creatures in the faunal
biomass. Large, rare faunal species occur in open-
air parts of sites, accompanied by pieces of large,
decorated serving dishes that are ceremonially
disposed of by "killing." These species and the
dishes are interpreted as feasting refuse, since they
are not in secluded, exclusive contexts that elites
might control but are out in the open in the midst of
houses. The biological remains and stable isotope
analyses show a seasonally flooding tropical biome
that was more densely wooded and less seasonal than
today (Roosevelt n.d.a). The tropical forest and
floodplain environment appears to have supplied
plentiful food for communities, for there is little
skeletal evidence for chronic nutritional stress or
severe disease. Most people have gum infections,
and a few have cribra orbitalia, an anemic pathology
associated with intestinal parasites, but no skeletons
have pathologies associated with severe anemia, and
infectious lesions are very rare (Roosevelt 1991:388-
395). These patterns in the osteology are consistent
with the lifestyle of a large, relatively sedentary
population that does not have discrete socioeconomic
strata. The number of mound sites, of houses per
mound platform level (reduced to account for non-
contemporary houses) and of hearths per house in
excavated sites suggest a regional population of more
than 100,000 and a density of about seven persons
per square kilometer, comparable to mainstream
Amazonian ethnohistoric accounts of population
densities (Roosevelt 1991:38-39,341-342,404-405).
Such a population would be expected to have required
the sort of investment in long-term garden plantings
and intensive fishing that the archaeological
subsistence remains indicate.
Summary
The general picture from the Marajoara cultural
remains, then, is of populous, wealthy, but apparently
uncentralized, societies. Their populations lived in
23
sometimes sizable, long-term communities atop
large-scale earth constructions, taking sustenance
from fish, horticultural crops, and orchards. They
created highly elaborate and often monumental art,
and craft objects that were available to all residential
groups, although in somewhat different quality and
quantity. Such differences are more consonant with
graded ranking than with socioeconomic
stratification.
The Santarem Culture
The only other area in the mainstream of the
Lower Amazon that has a range of data with which
to evaluate the nature of indigenous complex societies
is Santarem/Monte Alegre at the mouth of the Tapajos
river in Brazil (see Figure 2.1). The late prehistoric
culture here is known for its elaborate modeled-
incised and painted pottery, which belongs to the so-
called Incised and Punctate horizon (Palmatary 1960;
de la Penha 1986). Closely related to the Santarem
culture is the poorly known Konduri culture, whose
sphere of influence adjoins that of the Santarem
culture to the north and west (Palmatary 1960). We
know about the Santarem culture from a variety of
sources: the material culture, the archaeological sites,
and the contact period records of the area. About 25
radiocarbon dates from Santarem and a few other
sites indicate a beginning for the culture soon after
A.D. 500, a florescence in the 14th and early 15th
centuries, and a demise during European conquest
and missionization between the mid-15th and early
16th centuries. The stratigraphy, pottery and dates
from test excavations at Santarem indicate that the
best known, so-called classic ceramic phase of the
culture is pre-, not post-contact, between A.D. 1300
and 1440 (Quinn et al. n.d). (Age estimates for the
relevant radiocarbon dates, WK-6832 to WK-6846,
are essentially the same whether calibrated or not.)
Our picture of the society, therefore, may
inadvertently combine details that were accurate only
for certain periods, not the whole time span of the
culture.
Settlement Patterns
The settlement pattern of the Santarem culture
differs somewhat from the Marajoara culture at the
mouth of the Amazon. The Santarem regional
cultural sphere is about the same size as the local
 24
Polychrome regions, but most occupations are
shallower (ca. 50 cm to 1 m) and much larger in area.
Very large areas of dense, black garbage and
structural remains occur in settlements, some of
which measure several square kilometers in area. The
late prehistoric archaeological site at the present city
of Santarem, for example, had an occupied area of
about four square kilometers (Figure 2.4). The black
soil garbage deposits of the culture are very numerous
and extensive. They are ubiquitous along the banks
of the Lower Amazon and often extend continuously
for many miles (Nimuendaju n.d.; Smith 1980). My
colleagues and I conducted geophysical and
topographic surveys over almost one square
kilometer of the archaeological site at Santarem city
(Bevan 1989) and excavated in ten areas to test the
results of the surveys (Roosevelt n.d.c). Together
the surveys and excavations suggest that people lived
in large, oblong structures equipped with bell-shaped
storage pits (Roosevelt n.d.c). Informal surface
survey data acquired earlier record other facilities in
i i
• -
:6jS
|
/ •• ; „
Figure 2.4 Map of modern Santarem city. The prehistoric occupation lies mainly in the Aldeia and Port sections.
Anna C. Roosevelt
the vicinity, such as round wells at sites and elevated
roads and causeways running between sites
(Nimuendaju 1949, n.d.).
Art, Material Culture, and Social Organization
Material culture was rich, and objects were often
elaborately decorated. Many of the elaborately
decorated dishes are food-service pieces for display
(Figure 2.5) and appear to have been widely available
in the community. Sherds of such pieces are found
in large numbers of small and large sites. There are
also musical instruments, such as bird ocarinas and
female figurine rattles, and other ingenious, finely
maderitualobjects, such as snuffing implements. The
carving and grinding of stone tools was greatly
elaborated. Many ground stone objects appear to be
wood-carving tools of varied sizes and types, such
as axes, adzes, chisels and awls. Other stone objects
are semi-precious stone ornaments, such as jade frog
pendants and head-band ornaments apparently
depicting humans (de la Penha 1986:168-169).
Jy\ •:•• ^ J :
-
. -
ttrti
' ' '
r
• • - '
lax
ZONA URBANA
CIDADE DE SANiaREM—F»
 Prehistoric Complex Societies in Amazonia
Figure 2.5 Decorated display vessel from Santarem city, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi
(de la Penha 1986:150).
According to the conquest records, these carvings
were considered objects of value and were traded
widely and worn especially by women. There were
also large stone carvings in the shape of "alter-ego
figures," which have one figure, usually an animal,
crouched on the shoulders of another (Palmatary
1960). These carvings have standardized double
perforations at the base, presumably to attach them
to a support. They could be interpreted as emblems
or scepters. Of particular interest are the
archaeological lunate-blade "axes" from the cultural
sphere of Santarem and of closely related cultures
(Figure 2.6). Similar implements are identified in
early ethnographic collections from the area as war
clubs (de la Penha 1986). Pierced projectile points
have also been found in some Santarem sites (Hartt
n.d.). During the European conquest of the Santarem
area at the close of the reign of this culture, large war
parties of as many as 60 warriors per canoe were
described as attacking the invaders with lethal
poisoned arrows (Medina 1934; Nimuendaju 1949).
Contact period records also suggest that each
residential community was obliged to provide able
bodied persons for war efforts (Nimuendaju 1949).
Though rare, poorly treated captive slaves were
25
observed by some chroniclers (Palmatary 1960).
In the art corpus from the site of Santarem are
very large ceramic figures of men and women
depicted with personal details said to indicate high
rank, according to conquest records (Nimuendaju
1949) (Figure 2.7). The figures have elongated, slit
earlobes and elaborate painted body decoration. The
women wear headbands with carved ornaments and
hold up bowls. The men wear radial headdresses
and shoulder bags and hold rattles. Such figures are
rare compared to other types of representational
ceramic objects. At Santarem city they were found
broken but complete in bell-shaped pits during
excavations for construction (Palmatary 1960). So
far, such figures are not known from other, smaller
settlements. On the basis of their iconography and
distribution, the figures might be interpreted as
evidence of political or ritual centralization and
hierarchy.
Subsistence and Environment
Only a few sites of the classic Santarem culture
have been excavated with archaeobotanical recovery
techniques, so we do not have comprehensive
knowledge of subsistence. The plant remains and
26
Figure 2.6 Santarem style clubs, Museu Paraense Emilio
Goeldi (de la Penha 1986:182).
Figure 2.7 Large, hollow human image from Santarem city, Museu Paraense
Emilio Goeldi (de la Penha 1986:155).
Anna C. Roosevelt
stable carbon isotope ratios of wood and tree fruits
of the time show a strong dominance of canopied
tropical forest vegetation but also the possibility that
increasing human population density in the area
resulted in some thinning and opening of the forest
(Roosevelt n.d.a). A large late prehistoric pole and
thatch house preserved in a cave site near Monte
Alegre measured more than three by eight meters.
In the foundations were desiccated corncobs as well
as a wide range of tree fruits, cultivated gourds, and
varied faunal remains. The foundations of
longhouses geophysically mapped in the
archaeological site at Santarem city measured about
eight meters long and three meters wide in the radar
profiles. The house floors and associated garbage
contain rare carbonized maize kernels and numerous
tree fruits. There were also numerous small sharp
flint chips that could have been used in manioc
graters. The conquerors' records mention both
manioc and maize as important food crops, but state
that some communities in the area emphasized maize
as a staple food (de Heriarte 1964). Maize had a ritual
role; it was mainly consumed as beer served in
lommunity ceremonies (Nimuendaju 1949). Each
family owed a "tithe" of their maize crop to the
community for making the beer (Nimuendaju 1949).
Faunal food was valued, and there was large-scale,
 Prehistoric Complex Societies in Amazonia
intensive fishing and extensive corralling of water
turtles near settlements (Acuna 1891). As on Marajo,
however, tiny fishes were the daily faunal fare,
according to the bioarchaeological finds in garbage.
Turtle remains occur mostly in the ceremonial
features, not in the everyday garbage (Roosevelt
n.d.c). Only in the remains of small, hinterland
Santarem-culture settlements, such as Caverna da
Pedra Pintada, is a broad spectrum of fauna
encountered. Possibly around large settlements, such
as that at Santarem city, larger fauna other than river
turtles had become scarce. With only one large site
mapped and only two houses test excavated, it is not
possible to estimate population density or
distribution, but this is the area that conquest records
suggest had a density of just under ten persons per
square kilometer (see references above in section on
Marajo subsistence, environment, and population).
In the Santarem area, funerary disposal was even
more highly ritualized than in the Polychrome culture
on Marajo. Most bodies were highly processed and
disposed of by cremation or secondary burial in
bowls. Body processing steps described in the
accounts include smoking, burial, exhumation,
washing, and burning. The aim of these
manipulations, according to the men who missionized
the communities in this area in the 17th century
(Bettendorf 1910), was to create ancestor relics to
worship. They also stated that mummies of important
ancestors were kept in special houses and brought
out, refurbished, and displayed in periodic
ceremonies each year; the mummified individuals
were referred to as the "first mother" and "first father"
(Nimuendaju 1949).
Ethnohistoric Accounts of Social Organization
The early European accounts of the vicinity of
Santarem city mention warlike paramount rulers who
claimed to be descended from gods. They also
mention a paramount female religious figure who
may have been a deified ancestor, since no one ever
met her. Each sizable community in the area had a
head person who was elevated above a group of lesser
leaders, who were themselves elevated over
residential leaders. The community leader recorded
for the community at Santarem city was a high-
ranking woman. According to the recorded anecdotes
about her, the noble group she belonged to was
endogamous (Bettendorf 1910). Mythic leadership
27
by women is also recorded in the "myths of the
Amazons," which describe communities led by
warlike women shamans (Shoumatoff 1986:101-
108). According to the sources, the "nobles" were a
separate group from those who worked in
subsistence, suggesting that there may have been
distinct occupational groups.
Summary
The general picture of the Santarem society
accords better with the idea of a warlike complex
chiefdom than does that of the Marajoara society.
Ethnohistoric accounts, iconography, and settlement
patterns all give evidence of a moderately centralized
political hierarchy that claimed some tribute.
Populations expanded rapidly during the existence
of the society. Concurrently, food production
intensified, maize may have become more important
than before, and domestic storage facilities were
developed. Despite the rarity of sites with the large
human figures and semiprecious gems, however, all
known occupation sites have abundant sherds of the
highly decorated feasting-ceremonial pottery. In
terms of stratification, then, there may have been a
political elite over a population that worked for its
subsistence and supplied tribute but that also seems
to have enjoyed access to the fine pottery art and
community ceremonies.
Complex Societies Elsewhere in Amazonia
Scattered data from other parts of the Amazon
show that the complex societies of the Tapajos and
Amazon mouths were not unique. In the Upper
Xingu, researchers have mapped large settlements
with multiple concentric rows of large houses with
defensive precincts (Heckenberger 1996). In the
Bolivian Amazon, extensive mound systems and field
earthworks have been mapped and excavated
(Deneven 1966; Dougherty and Calandra 1981-1982;
Erickson 1980). The Bolivian mounds, some over
ten meters high, are composed of building stages for
villages or towns. Some were occupied for very long
periods of time, beginning in the Formative period,
about 1000 years ago. Some have continuous
construction and occupation for more than two
thousand years before the European conquest. In the
volcanic Ecuadorian Amazon uplands, also, large
mound systems were built and maintained between
28 Anna C. Roosevelt

lOOB.C.and A.D. 1000(Athens 1989;Ponas 1987, in upland forest areas. We do not know much about
Salazar 1998). The mounds cluster in a center, Faldas their history, but what is known suggests that such
de Sangay, where there is a central ceremonial societies have existed in several areas of the Amazon
precinct with anthropomorphic and zoomorphic since at least 1000 B.C. Contrary to expectations
mound constructions (Figure 2.8). The mounds that their subsistence would be intensive agriculture,
contain a wide range of finely decorated ceramics some groups relied on mixed foraging and
and carved stone objects. The presence of hundreds horticulture, and others were intensive maize-staple
of closely spaced, apparently residential mounds over farmers. The material achievements of the societies,
an area of 12 square kilometers indicates a relatively whether in fine art or monumental construction, were
large population for the society. The occupation is substantial, in no way less than those of complex
associated with the deposition of abundant maize and societies in drier or higher-elevation areas, such as
weed pollen in nearby lakes (Piperno 1995), and the Central Andes. However, the presence of the great
human skeletons in sites of contemporary Peruvian expanse of forest may have retarded or prevented the
cultures have stable isotopic patterns bone collagen development of coercive types of complex society
patterns heavily dominated by C-4 plants, such as by functioning as a refuge for escapees and a strategic
maize (Roosevelt 1989). base for opponents of the rulers of societies. Until
late prehistoric times, Amazonian complex societies
CONCLUSION that produced massive earthworks and large-scale and
elaborate fine artworks apparently maintained
From the Amazonian data, incomplete though noncentralized and nonstratified organization,
they are, one can make several conclusions. contrary to functionalist expectations. Probable
Indigenous complex societies with large, densely evidence for central rule and the existence of a
settled populations arose there in prehistoric times, discrete noble group is confined to the period just
contrary to environmental limitation theory. They before the European conquest, a time when there is
developed in circumscribed riverine land as well as evidence for increased aggregation of human

Figure 2.8 Faldas de Sangay site map (after Porras 1987).

 Prehistoric Complex Societies in Amazonia
population, intensified agriculture, increased group
warfare, and increased human impact on the forest.
The archaeological record of Amazonia, as
known at present, tends to document a diverse group
of complex societies. Complex societies seem to
have developed in a wider range of environments
and with more kinds of subsistence systems than we
once thought. They also seem to have organized
themselves in a variety of ways, including primarily
heterarchical modes of operation in some times and
places, and distinctly hierarchical and centralized
modes in other times and places. In sum, the evidence
from Amazonia suggests that early cultural ecological
theories were too narrow and monocausal to account
for the surprising variability manifested by the
archaeological societies. Environmental variation
indeed seems to have been a part of the causal
process, but did not limit and determine subsistence
adaptation and social development as strictly as had
been assumed. In terms of organization, some
societies managed to organize large, sedentary groups
of people, carry out large scale public works, and
create abundant fine art and crafts without resorting
to highly centralized and hierarchical administration.
A direction for future research, therefore, would be
to investigate in detail the evidence for specific
heterarchical forms of community organization in
these societies.
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