Prehispanic Macroregional Networks between the Southern Andes and the Lower Paraná River of South America

Regular and intensive links between populations in the Lower Paraná and the Southern Andes, the Central Hills, and the Santiagueña Plains are evident in the most recent period of the Late Holocene. In this article, we summarize the small-scale and large-scale trade and exchange among these regions, which included not only material objects, such as metal, rocks, and shells, but also animals and intangible components, such as images and information. We conclude that since the latter half of the Late Holocene a macroregional system of integration based on symbolic complementarity included the Lower Paraná, the Central Hills, and the Santiagueña Plains. Objects and representations were instrumental in articulating a level of social integration in central-eastern Argentina and neighboring regions. We cannot fully understand the Indigenous societies of these regions without reference to the other peoples with whom they interacted through processes of trade and exchange.