It has been commonplace to describe relatively simple forms of nonegalitarian societies as “tribal” or “ranked.” However, these terms were formulated without reference to causal models and they are vague. My goal is to establish a better understanding of how nonegalitarian societies emerged from an egalitarian hunter gatherer base. This topic has captured the attention of a wide range of scholars over the past several decades, and there exist a number of excellent syntheses of the endeavors directed toward understanding the emergence of complexity (Arnold 1993; Coupland 1988; Earle 1987, 1989; Feinman and Neitzel 1984; Johnson and Earle 1987; Tolstoy 1989). The principal contending schools of interpretation in archaeology view complexity as developing due to population pressure, needs for more efficient management of risk or information; economic efficiency (redistribution), the monopoly of long-distance trade routes; manipulation of social or ideological factors; the simple hiving off of daughter communities resulting in community hierarchies; circumscription (social or geographic), coercive exploitation, ritual values, external threats, labor-intensive investment in productive facilities, other means of controlling resources including irrigation; scalar effects related to increasing community sizes or population densities; storage. There are structuralist and cognitive explanations as well. Rather than review these earlier contributions, I will proceed directly to a discussion of some other questions and data that I have gleaned from both archaeological and ethnographic data.

Pathways to Power

http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/sassaman/pages/research/Hunter-Gatherer%20Complexity/JARfulltext.pdf

Complex Hunter–Gatherers in Evolution and History: A North American Perspective

Hunting, Herding, Fishing and Gathering: Indigenous Peoples and Renewable Resource Use in the Arctic

Richman, Poorman, Beggarman, Chief: The Dynamics of Social Inequality

Despite a keen awareness of climate change, northern Indigenous Peoples have had limited participation in climate-change science due to limited access, power imbalances, and differences in worldview. A western science emphasis on facts and an indigenous emphasis on relationships to spiritual and biophysical components indicate important but distinct contributions that each knowledge system can make. Indigenous communities are experiencing widespread thawing of permafrost and coastal erosion exacerbated by loss of protective sea ice. These climate-induced changes threaten village infrastructure, water supplies, health, and safety. Climate-induced habitat changes associated with loss of sea ice and with landscape drying and extensive wildfires interact with northern development to bring both economic opportunities and environmental impacts. A multi-pronged approach to broadening indigenous participation in climate-change research should: 1) engage communities in designing climate-change solutions; 2) create an environment of mutual respect for multiple ways of knowing; 3) directly assist communities in achieving their adaptation goals; 4) promote partnerships that foster effective climate solutions from both western and indigenous perspectives; and 5) foster regional and international networking to share climate solutions.

Indigenous frameworks for observing and responding to climate change in Alaska

To Fish in Common: The Ethnohistory of Lummi Indian Salmon Fishing

The AA. critique an influential argument that rejects existing interpretations in claiming the existence of protohistorical chiefdoms in the Puget Sound area of Washington State. The case for chiefdoms is disputed for the use of dated theoretical models and for faulty ethnohistoric reconstruction. An alternative model is provided that builds on earlier scholarship. The AA. argue that reinterpretations created for contemporary political purposes may constitute « inventions of tradition », and point to some possible consequences.

Creating chiefdoms: the puget sound case

Contemporary Alaskan native economies

The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774–1874. By Robert Boyd. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999. xvi, 403 pp. $50.00, ISBN 0-295-97837-6.)

Daniel L. Boxberger

Papers

To Fish in Common: The Ethnohistory of Lummi Indian Salmon Fishing

Creating chiefdoms: the puget sound case

Contemporary Alaskan native economies

The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774–1874. By Robert Boyd. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999. xvi, 403 pp. $50.00, ISBN 0-295-97837-6.)

To Fish in Common: The Ethnohistory of Lummi Indian Salmon Fishing