| The objective of this research was to assess the degree to which an implementation of GPS-based survey techniques, and the extraction of information through a combination of GIS and remotely sensed imagery, in conjunction with more formal archaeological techniques and ethnoarchaeological research methods, can add to the formation of a predictive modeling effort aimed at developing a heuristic model capable of identifying additional significant site locations based on the vegetative signature unique to anthropogenic soils in the area. The paucity of data for the Upper Xingu region of Brazil (and Amazonia in general) makes it an excellent location for the use of new technologically-informed approaches to studying tropical land use, and providing an initial step toward an empirical understanding of the anthropogenic aspects of landscape formation.;Important questions facing Amazonian anthropology today are the nature of prehistoric and present human-environment interaction, and the impacts of human settlement in non-western tropical settings. This dissertation addresses some of the problems of quantifying and qualifying the nature of the landscape transformation resulting from long-term human occupation and settlement of the Upper Xingu region of southern Amazonia. I have examined the nature of the Xinguano impact on their local environment, how they transformed their immediate landscape, and how the results of this work undermine current theories of a fundamentally non-dynamic environment coupled with models of law-density population.;There is a growing acknowledgement by archaeologists of the fundamental utility of GIS, GPS survey, and the integration of remotely sensed imagery into current studies. This begs more in-depth investigations into the extent to which each technology may be utilized. The application of the predictive model of archaeological site locations described in this study allowed rapid identification of areas with a high probability of past human occupation. This has the potential to direct more efficient archaeological exploration of the Indigenous Park of the Xingu. In all, some 1800 km2 of predicted site locations were identified within the region of study. During the course of the Upper Xingu Project, headed by Michael Heckenberger, a small sample of this region was discovered to have undergone massive alteration by human agents (Heckenberger et al. 2003). The pattern of anthropagenic vegetation uncovered through this investigation adds to a mounting body of evidence that would seem to reaffirm this hypothesis. |
