NO. 1 CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN LATIN AMERICA 121 
cised and zoned-hachure decoration, relating it in a generalized way to 
the late Formative complexes of Peru and Ecuador. The distribu- 
tion and chronology of the sites are in keeping with an introduction 
downriver from the west, and the small amount of differentiation be- 
tween the eastern and western occurrences makes it seem probable 
that this complex was distributed by migration. No carbon-14 dates 
are yet available, so the postulation of a maximum antiquity of about 
500 B.C. (fig. 16) for this movement is a guess based on comparison 
with the chronological sequences in Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela 
(Meggers and Evans, 1961, fig. 7) . 
The habitation sites of the Ananatuba Phase, representing this early 
complex on Marajo Island, do not differ in size, composition, or any 
other significant feature from sites of the Taruma Phase in British 
Guiana, left by a tribe possessing a typical Tropical Forest culture 
that survived into historic times. This similarity suggests that the in- 
troduction of pottery making into the Amazon area also marks the 
transition from a wandering hunting way of life to the Tropical 
Forest pattern of culture, characterized by small and frequently 
shifted settlements, social organization based on kinship ties, and a 
subsistence economy divided between slash-and-burn agriculture and 
wild products collected from the forest. There is no evidence of burial 
practices or religious observances. 
The next major event in the archeological record is the introduc- 
tion of an elaborate ceramic complex characterized by incised, ex- 
cised, and polychrome painted decoration. In its best-known form, the 
Marajoara Phase on the island of Marajo, this complex is associated 
with sociopolitical and religious traits belonging to a higher level of 
development than that represented by Tropical Forest Culture, includ- 
ing marked social stratification, occupational division of labor, spe- 
cialized ceremonial pottery vessels and other ritual objects (Meggers 
and Evans, 1957). Large earth mounds were used as building sub- 
structures and cemeteries. Methods of disposal of the dead include 
secondary urn burial, earth burial, and cremation, with offerings re- 
flecting differential status during life. 
Details of material culture, as well as the general level of develop- 
ment, indicate that the Marajoara Phase originated in the northwestern 
part of the continent. Ceramic evidence of its movement downriver 
has been found on the Rio Napo in eastern Ecuador (Meggers and 
Evans, 1958), and along the middle Amazon, where it is represented 
by the Coari and Guarita Phases (Hilbert, 1959b ; Meggers and Evans, 
1961, fig. 5) . This introduction can be placed at around a.d. 1000 on the 
basis of carbon-14 dates from the westernmost sites. In the tropical 
