Long-term Cultural Continuity in the Central Region of Panama: An Examination of the Preceramic and Early Ceramic Socioeconomic Foundations in the Rio Parita Valley, Panama

Abstract

Many of the characteristics of Panamanian societies described by the Spanish during the conquest, had been established much earlier. In the Central Region of Panama, social change was usually not a radical departure from dominant socioeconomic patterns but was incorporated into existing strategies. In this paper, I examine change and continuity through the archaeological record in the Parita River Valley focusing on the early occupational sequence (9200-100 BC). More specifically, I examine how general patterns, such as regional exchange, techno-ecological adaptation of the subsistence economy, and increasing social identity and differentiation were established in the Preceramic and Early Ceramic Periods and endured, albeit transformed, into the Late Ceramic Period. The continuity of these trends supports the long cultural development in the Central Region of Panama without the need of explaining social change as the result of migration.