Estimation of the optimum density of the Selk'nam from Tierra del Fuego: Inferences about human dynamics in extreme environments.

The Selk'nam, a hunter-gatherer group that inhabited Isla Grande (Tierra del Fuego), became extinct soon after coming into contact with Europeans (XIX century). The population of this tribe was estimated from mission archives and the application of a hunter-gatherer ecological model. Both approaches suggest that the widely accepted number of 3,500-4,000 individuals for this human group is an overestimation, and that 1,500 may be more accurate. This yields a population density of 0.04 persons/km , a very low value, but which is in accordance with the extremely harsh environment. The low population density was an essential adaptive strategy to the complex ecological equilibrium of Tierra del Fuego. Indirectly, this factor may have contributed to the rapid disappearance of this population with the breakdown of the traditional way of life. In addition, the missionary registers show that most of the aborigines died of infectious diseases, a situation exacerbated by the high population density in the missions. The reconstruction of the decline of the Selk'nam population may be used to evaluate the impact of European contact on other American hunter-gatherer groups and also to elucidate the adaptive patterns of human groups in adverse environments. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:699-708, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.