AHRC-FAPESP MoU -Je Landscapes of southern Brazil: Ecology, History and Power in a transitional landscape during the Late Holocene

The study of the economic, social and ideological roles associated with the arrival of burial monuments and the creation of sacred, built landscapes is a core theme in researching Early Formative societies of the Americas. The southern Je of Brazil provides an exceptional opportunity to understand the synergy of ecology, history and power in the creation and transformation of landscapes in this pivotal period of prehistory. In southern Brazil, the turn of the second millennium A.D. was a critical period marked by cultural transitions and environmental changes, which was reflected in a major increase in habitation sites, the arrival of mortuary/ceremonial architecture in the highlands, the development of anthropogenic soils in the Atlantic rainforest escarpment, and the appearance of Je funerary patterns along the Atlantic coast. Significantly, these cultural changes are broadly contemporaneous with the abrupt expansion of Araucaria forest (Paraná pine) within ~100 years, the rapidity and timing of which raises the possibility of an anthropogenic cause.
However, little synthetic interpretation of the southern proto-Je has been carried out for three main reasons: i) Firstly, despite more than forty years of archaeological research in the region, the highly localised and disconnected nature of these projects means that this wealth of archaeological data is highly dispersed and fragmentary - consequently, any potential broad-scale patterns or connections are difficult to discern. ii) Secondly, although the southern Je region is ideally suited for the investigation of pre-Columbian human-environment interactions (i.e., the potential relationship between the Je culture and Araucaria forest expansion), such relationships have thus far been unexplored due to the paucity of palaeoecological studies from sites close enough to the cultural sequences. iii) Finally, the southern Je constitute one of the best examples of long-term cultural continuity, linking modern indigenous groups with their pre-Columbian ancestors. Unfortunately, the lack of collaboration between archaeologists and ethnographers has meant that the enormous potential for integrating the existing rich ethnohistoric and ethnographic records, to reveal the underlying principles of social and spatial organization of Je culture, has not yet been exploited.
To address these important issues, the Je Landscapes of southern Brazil Project has been conceived by an international, interdisciplinary team at Exeter, Reading and São Paulo Universities as a research programme, integrating archaeological, ethnographical and palaeoecological data sources, to investigate the creation and transformation of southern Je landscapes in relation to the emergence of social complexity. The project will integrate, for the first time, all archaeological data from the vast and ecologically diverse southern Je landscapes into a comprehensive multilayered GIS database. In selected regions, where the co-PIs have already carried out pilot studies, we will conduct more intensive archaeological, topographical and geophysical surveys, along with excavations at selected sites, throughout a longitudinal E-W transect in different environments to acquire regional, chronological and functional data. All accessible and relevant ethnohistorical and ethnographic data will be collected and analyzed to search for common underlying principles of Je social and spatial organization that help us interpret the archaeological record. In parallel, we will retrieve sediment cores from lakes/bogs, and sample soil-pit profiles, to reconstruct the vegetation and fire histories of these regions for the last two millennia. This will allow us to: i) disentangle natural versus anthropogenic factors responsible for the expansion of the Araucaria forest that occurred during the last millennium, and ii) reconstruct past land-management practices.

This project is designed to have an important impact beyond the academic community. The non-academic beneficiaries of the project fall into four main categories.

1. School Children
The project will develop a package of pedagogical activities to engage primary school children in dialogue about heritage through play-based activities including: (i) Didactic pedagogical activities for the schools, including: a book containing a teacher's activity guide, brochure and video; (ii) a Travelling Exhibition; and (iii) Play-based pedagogical activities aimed at a younger audience - story-telling and puzzles. The Archaeological Research and Heritage Education Group (GRUPEP) at UNISUL (University of Southern Santa Catarina), which has ample experience in heritage education in the region, will produce these resources and coordinate these activities with schools, municipalities, NGOs and the São Joaquim National Park.

2. Members of the Local Community, Local Societies, Volunteer Groups and NGOs
These groups will benefit from increased accessibility to knowledge about their cultural and environmental heritage through: (i) open days at excavations; (ii) conferences at local municipalities; and (iii) a travelling exhibition aimed at the general public interested in the research topics. The travelling exhibition will also be show-cased in different municipalities of the region by project partner São Joaquim National Park. The NGO Instituto Serrano will help to liaise with local communities and disseminate the project's information. The freely available nature of the research outputs of the project will ensure that the project can inspire similar research in other regions of southern Brazil and beyond.

3. Indigenous Communities
The project will have direct relevance to the development of local indigenous communities, laying the basis for the development of local indigenous education. PDRA Dr. Veiga will liaise with selected southern Je communities to develop meaningful strategies for public archaeology. As a result, she will produce a bilingual educational booklet for Kaingang and Xokleng indigenous schools. In addition, results of the project will be disseminated to a multicultural audience at the upcoming "Indigenous People Week" through public conferences at this event to be organised by UNISUL.

4. Policy Makers, Planners and Decision Makers
a) Conservation policy
Our study region lies in the Atlantic rainforest (Mata Atlántica), one of the last remaining biodiversity hotspot on Earth. Human/nature interactions strongly affect trajectories of ecosystem change. Any attempt to restore or rehabilitate these landscapes for biodiversity conservation must therefore be based upon a sound understanding of these influences. For example, if our project demonstrates that past changes in cover of Parana pine forest were driven more by pre-Columbian forest management rather than natural factors such as climate change, then future conservation policy for this threatened forest type may need to include appropiate form of forest management. The palaeoecological component of our project will reveal the respective roles of pre-Columbian land use versus climate change in shaping today's forests - crucial to informing the debate about the most appropriate conservation policies for national parks in the region. We have therefore included the São Joaquim National Park as a project partner to ensure that our results are placed in this wider conservation context. We have therefore included the São Joaquim National Park as a project partner to ensure that our results are placed in this wider conservation context.

b) Cultural Heritage Management
The production of a southern proto-Je archaeological database, in collaboration with IPHAN (Brazilian National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage), will heighten awareness of the importance of the cultural heritage that will be relevant to decisions made by planners/developers and IPHAN.