Arid Land Stories. Archaeology of the Atacama Desert

FAIN: FT-285682-22

Mario A. Rivera
Unaffiliated Independent Scholar (Oak Creek, WI 53154-2152)

Research and writing leading to a book on the prehistory of the southern Andes and the Atacama Desert.

“Arid Land Stories. Archaeology of the Atacama Desert” is a book that contains the experience of Aymaras and Atacamenos people through time. It is a prehistory of the South Andes, a region that deserves better knowledge in American archaeology, fulfilling the lack of an English version. It contains results of multidisciplinary research that details the circumstances by which human society adapted to the hyper-arid environment. This development reveals surprising projections when obtaining results that describe complex situations of our ancestor’s ways of life. Arid Land Stories reflects my own philosophy regarding peoples experiences from which one can learn to plan. I believe in the potential of anthropological and archaeological research, due to the essence of the research itself that provides better alternatives and paths for those peoples of today who live in such harsh and extreme conditions.