107 ‘pithouses’ in the initial peopling of the Jê Meridional indians in Santa Catarina: Rincão dos Albinos

Abstract

The paper aims to understand the first establishments of the Jê Meridional in the federal state of Santa Catarina. The main text presents a site on the highlands of the state crowded with 107 ‘pit houses’, whose dates cover the sixth through the ninth century AD. Then it looks for other sites of the same age, on the highlands and on the coastal plain, concluding that the original people were movable and can be catched with some ease only in places where they returned frequently, as are pioneering araucaria forests and collective cemeteries. These first sites paralleled the rise of atmospheric humidity, which influenced the expansion of the Araucaria Forest in the highlands, the Atlantic Forest on the slope, and the Restinga Forest on the coastal plain.