Birds in maritime hunter-gatherers subsistence: case studies from Southern Patagonia and the Aleutian Islands

International audienceHunter-gatherer populations living in maritime environments often share common traits and characteristics; amongst these is the exploitation of rich marine resources. In circumpolar zones, the availability of edible plant food is very low, and the dependence on marine animal resources is subsequently high. Numerous species of cetaceans, pinnipeds, birds, fish, and marine invertebrates contributed to the diets of archaic hunter-gatherers in different proportions. This paper presents and investigates the contribution of birds to maritime economies in Southern Patagonia and the Aleutian Islands. The sites examined range from 7500 years BP to pre-contact times. A comparison of avian exploitation strategies in these two areas identified several trends: 1) that birds are seldom the primary food source (estimated by comparison with the other taxa identified at the sites), but are nevertheless systematically present in the assemblages; 2) the range of hunted species is relatively limited in Southern Patagonia and shows little variation through time whereas it is broader in the Aleutian Islands with some temporal variations; 3) the majority of the species identified are coastal or pelagic, often gregarious, and still very common today