ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews archaeological, palaeontological, and historical data available concerning the exploitation of land mammals in the eastern Pampa subregion of Argentina. It discusses hunting techniques and strategies employed during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene periods. Unfortunately, archaeological research in each of these areas has been uneven and provides an incomplete picture of prehistoric cultural adaptation to the eastern Pampa subregion. La Toma is a multicomponent, open-air site, where a well-defined later component was found. Intensive analysis of bone remains from the first site indicate that swamp deer, Pampean deer, and coipo, along with several kinds of fish, were the main food sources. The extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna, and the retraction of guanaco to the south and to the west during the Late Holocene Period, and the sudden expansion of the European horse during the 16th century, were the main events that affected the part of the subsistence base focused on mammal exploitation.
