The Evolution of Complex Hunter-Gatherers: Archaeological Evidence from the North PacificComplex hunter-gatherers have captivated anthropological and archaeological interest in the past two decades. Where it was once commonplace to view hunting and gathering as little more than a starting point for social evolution, today scholars appreciate great diversity in past and present hunter-gatherer societies. The challenge of explaining the development of complexity in hunter-gatherer groups breathes new life into hunter-gatherer studies, focusing not only on adaptive variation but also on evolution and history. This book makes a contribution to the developing field of complex hunter-gatherer studies with an archaeological analysis of the development of one such group. This book examines the evolution of complex hunter-gatherers on the North Pacific coast of Alaska. It strives to account for the dynamics and processes that transformed a population from low density, disaggregated, relatively mobile, and relatively egalitarian organizations into the demographically dense, sedentary, aggregated, militaristic, and ranked/stratified populations around the North Pacific by the time of ethnographic contact. To do so, this book examines seven thousand years of archaeological history on the Kodiak Archipelago - a region that 250 years ago was part of a broader phenomenon of complex hunter-gatherers ringing the North American Pacific Northwest Coast from California to the Aleutian Islands. This is one of the first books available to examine in depth the social evolution of a specific complex hunter-gatherer tradition on the North Pacific Rim. As such, it provides readers with an intimate look at archaeological evidence integrated into a problem-oriented study of emergent complex hunter-gatherers. It will be of interest to professional archaeologists, anthropologists, students of archaeology and anthropology, and general readers interested in social evolution, complex hunter-gatherers, and/or Alaskan prehistory. |
Contents
The Evolution of Complex HunterGatherers | 1 |
111 Social ComplexityA Definition | 2 |
12 The North Pacific Rim | 4 |
121 Causality | 5 |
13 Theoretical Orientation | 8 |
The Kodiak Environment | 11 |
22 Geology | 12 |
23 Ecology | 16 |
Effects of Technological and Labor Intensification | 115 |
624 Act IVEmergence of Social Asymmetry | 121 |
63 Conclusion | 129 |
The Sitkalidak Archaeological Survey Project | 133 |
722 Site Identification | 136 |
723 Site Documentation | 138 |
724 Analytical Units and Precision | 139 |
73 Site Chronology | 141 |
232 Littoral Ecozone | 19 |
233 Marine Ecozone | 21 |
234 Riverine Ecozone | 27 |
24 Temporal Dimensions of Environmental Variability | 29 |
242 Subseasonal Variation | 32 |
244 Long Scale Variation | 36 |
A Historical Framework | 39 |
32 Ocean Bay I and II 75003500 BP | 40 |
33 Ocean Bay to Kachemak Transition | 46 |
34 Early KachemakOld Kiavak 32002500 BP | 47 |
35 Late KachemakThree Saints Phase 2500800 BP | 49 |
Transition Discontinuity or Replacement? | 53 |
37 Koniag 800200 BP | 54 |
38 AlutiiqRussianAmerica AD 17841864 | 58 |
39 AlutiiqUS America AD 1867present | 63 |
310 Summary | 66 |
Complex HunterGatherers on the Kodiak Archipelago | 67 |
42 Feast and Famine for the Kodiak Alutiiq | 68 |
43 Potlatch Feasting | 70 |
44 Gender Relations | 74 |
45 Leadership | 76 |
46 Property Ownership | 79 |
47 Trade | 81 |
48 Warfare | 83 |
49 Slavery | 84 |
410 Summary | 85 |
Colonization | 87 |
53 Evidence for the Earliest Occupants of Kodiak | 90 |
531 Estimating the Timing of Colonization | 91 |
54 Lifeways of Early Holocene Coastal Peoples | 99 |
Modeling Emergent Complexity on the North Pacific | 101 |
612 Outline of Theoretical Orientation | 104 |
62 Modeling Kodiak Social Evolution | 105 |
621 Act IA Beginning | 106 |
622 Act IIInitial Effects of Circumscription | 111 |
732 Typological Dating | 146 |
74 Material Analysis | 148 |
75 Excavations | 149 |
751 Tanginak Spring Site KOD 481 | 150 |
752 Bear Island Site KOD 564 | 156 |
753 Partition Cliff Site KOD 473 | 161 |
754 Lighthouse Site KOD 089 | 164 |
Site Scale Analyses | 171 |
83 Site Size Measures of Population Aggregation | 174 |
832 Number of Houses Per Site | 180 |
84 Site Function Variability | 182 |
841 Site Functions from Spatial and Geographical Parameters | 183 |
842 Artifacts Assemblage Character | 187 |
85 Settlement Patterns | 191 |
86 Summary | 199 |
Social Inequality and Demography | 201 |
92 Trends in Population Change | 210 |
922 The CarbonDate Frequency Method | 213 |
93 Summary | 217 |
Reconciliation Extension and Implications | 219 |
101 Interrogating the Model | 220 |
The Second ActExpansion to DensityDependence | 227 |
The Third ActDensityDependence or Near Extinction? | 230 |
The Fourth ActCompetition and Cooperation in a New World Order | 231 |
102 Overtures to Emergent Properties | 234 |
103 Summary and Conclusion | 238 |
Appendix A | 245 |
Appendix B | 257 |
Appendix C | 267 |
Appendix D | 271 |
Endnotes | 293 |
References | 297 |
323 | |
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The Evolution of Complex Hunter-Gatherers: Archaeological Evidence from the ... Ben Fitzhugh No preview available - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
Afognak Alaska Peninsula Aleutians Alutiiq Anthropology area mē artifacts assemblages behavioral Beta camp Chapter charcoal Clark coastal colonization competition Complex Hunter-Gatherers components Crowell and Mann cultural Davydov deposits Early Kachemak ecological economic Ecozone egalitarian emergence endemic warfare evolution evolutionary excavation Figure fish floor foraging ground-slate groups Gulf of Alaska Haggarty Holocene hunter-gatherer hunting increase inequality Jordan and Knecht Kachemak period Karluk Kodiak Archipelago Kodiak Island Koniag period large village larger Late Kachemak locations Mills Northwest Coast occupation Ocean Bay Ocean Bay period ocher Old Harbor patches patterns political population densities potlatch predictions processing production r-selected radiocarbon dates refuge region residential resource Russian salmon Saltonstall sample seasonal settlement side-rooms Sitkalidak small village social societies Steffian structures subsistence suggests Tanginak Spring technologies tephra Tlingit Vanderhoek variability warfare whale Winterhalder Workman year-round zone
Popular passages
Page 305 - Series 4. 1988b, Trends and Traditions in Alaskan Prehistory: A New Look at an Old View of the Neo-Eskimo. In The Late Prehistoric Development of Alaska's Native People, edited by RD Shaw, RK Harritt and DE Dumond, pp.
Page 303 - G. 1996: This old house: cultural complexity and household stability on the northern north-west coast of North America.