Showing papers in "American Antiquity in 2001"

Was agriculture impossible during the pleistocene but mandatory during the holocene? a climate change hypothesis

Abstract: Several independent trajectories of subsistence intensijcation, often leading to agriculture, began during the Holocene. No plant-rich intensijcations are known from the Pleistocene, even from the late Pleistocene when human populations were otherwise quite sophisticated. Recent data from ice and ocean-core climate proxies show that last glacial climates were extremely hostile to agriculture-dry, low in atmospheric CO,, and extremely variable on quite short time scales. We hypothesize that agriculture was impossible under last-glacial conditions. The quite abruptfinal amelioration of the climate was followed immediately by the beginnings of plant-intensive resource-use strategies in some areas, although the turn to plants was much later elsewhere. Almost all trajectories of subsistence intensijcation in the Holocene are progressive, and eventually agriculture became the dominant strategy in all but marginal environments. We hypothesize that, in the Holocene, agriculture was, in the long run, compulsory. We use a mathematical analysis to argue that the rate-limiting process for intensijcation trajectories must generally be the rate of innovation of subsistence technology or subsistence-related social organization. At the observed rates of innovation, population growth will always be rapid enough to sustain a high level of population pressure. Several processes appear to retard rates of cultural evolution below the maxima we observe in the most favorable cases.

Ceramic Style Change and Neutral Evolution: A Case Study from Neolithic Europe

Abstract: Following on the work of Dunnell, the evolutionary archaeology school has made a sharp distinction between functional and stylistic variation in archaeological artifacts. Variation is defined as functional if it is affected by selection processes and as stylistic if it is a result of processes of random drift. The argument has been further developed by Neiman (1995), who showed by simulation that processes of cultural mutation and drift could produce the kinds of battleship curves that generally characterize artifact-style frequency distributions through time, and also demonstrated that they could account for patterns of stylistic variation through time in Woodland-period ceramic assemblages from Illinois. In this paper we present a case study of change in the decoration of pottery from early Neolithic Central Europe. We show that the actual diachronic frequency distributions and those expected under the neutral model do not coincide and conclude that in this case the neutral model does not provide an adequate description of change in ceramic decoration. A model involving selection, in the form of a bias in favor of novelty in the later phases of the period studied, seems likely to be more appropriate, and we note the social interpretation of the original investigator of the data. In conclusion, it is suggested that neutral models provide an important heuristic tool but that there is not a radical break between functional and stylistic variation.

Techniques for assessing standardization in artifact assemblages : Can we scale material variability?

Abstract: The study of artifact standardization is an important line of archaeological inquiry that continues to be plagued by the lack of an independent scale that would indicate what a highly variable or highly standardized assemblage should look like. Related to this problem is the absence of a robust statistical technique for comparing variation between different kinds of assemblages. This paper addresses these issues. The Weber fraction for line-length estimation describes the minimum difference that humans can perceive through unaided visual inspection. This value is used to derive a constant for the coefficient of variation (CV = 1.7 percent) that represents the highest degree of standardization attainable through manual human production of artifacts. Random data are used to define a second constant for the coefficient of variation that represents variation expected when production is random (CV = 57.7 percent). These two constants can be used to assess the degree of standardization in artifact assemblages regardless of kind. Our analysis further demonstrates that CV is an excellent measure of standardization and provides a robust statistical technique for comparing standardization in samples of artifacts.

Paleocoastal marine fishing on the Pacific Coast of the Americas: perspectives from Daisy Cave, California.

Abstract: Analysis of over 27,000 fish bones from strata at Daisy Cave dated between about 11,500 and 8500 cal B.P. suggests that early Channel Islanders fished relatively intensively in a variety of habitats using a number of distinct technologies, including boats and the earliest evidence for hook-and-line fishing on the Pacific Coast of the Americas. The abundance of fish remains and fishing-related artifacts supports dietary reconstructions that suggest fish provided more than 50 percent of the edible meat represented in faunal samples from the early Holocene site strata. The abundance and economic importance of fish at Daisy Cave, unprecedented among early sites along the Pacific Coast of North America, suggest that early maritime capabilities on the Channel Islands were both more advanced and more variable than previously believed. When combined with a survey of fish remains from several other early Pacific Coast sites, these data suggest that early New World peoples effectively used watercraft, captured a diverse array of fish, and exploited a variety of marine habitats and resources.

Estimating the minimum number of skeletal elements (MNE) in zooarchaeology: a review and a new image-analysis GIS approach.

Abstract: Most zooarchaeologists employ some type of derived measure of skeletal element abundance in their analyses of faunal data. The minimum number of individuals (MNI) and the minimum number of animal units (MAU) are two of the most popular derived measurements, and each is based on a prior estimate of the minimum number of elements (MNE). Thus, the estimate of MNE from fragmented faunal fragments is the essential foundation for all inferences emanating from MNI and MAU estimates of skeletal element abundance. Estimating the MNE represented by a sample of faunal fragments is a complicated procedure that involves various assumptions, possible mathematical manipulations, and subjectivity. Unfortunately, the reasoning and methods underlying this procedure are unstandardized in zooarchaeology, and even worse, rarely made explicit. We review the scarce literature on this topic and identify two different approaches: the fraction summation approach and the overlap approach. We identify strengths and weaknesses in both approaches. We then present a new method that is based on using image-analysis GIS software to count overlapping fragments that have been converted to pixel images. This method maintains the strengths of the other methods while overcoming most of their weaknesses. It promises numerous powerful analytical capabilities that go far beyond the routines available in spreadsheets and databases. It also offers nearly boundless flexibility in database recoding and extremely complete information storage. Perhaps its greatest strength is that it is based on very intuitive reasoning.

Production and consumption in a sacred economy: The material correlates of High Devotional Expression at Chaco Canyon

Abstract: The role of production, exchange, and consumption in Chaco Canyon can be analyzed successfully only when the system as a whole is considered. A cognitive-processual approach is used here to develop a model of Chaco as an essentially egalitarian society, centered on the Canyon as a Location of High Devotional Expression. The production and consumption of goods is understood in the context of an ideational/devotional significance of the great houses and great kivas of Chaco and of periodic visits made to them for devotional purposes (i.e., pilgrimages), Consideration is given to the structure of regional pilgrimages and the function of the multiple great houses in Chaco Canyon. This model is compared with two others : Chaco as a secondary trading center and Chaco as an elite power base, Production and consumption in both sacred and profane contexts are examined in order to distinguish among the three models.

Shellfish Feeders, Carrion Eaters, and the Archaeology of Aquatic Adaptations

Abstract: Numerous taphonomic studies show that archaeologists should carefully evaluate the origins of faunal remains found in archaeological sites. Although extensive research has been done on natural sources of terrestrial faunal remains in archaeological sites, much less has been devoted to potential sources of aquatic fauna. Hundreds of animal species feed on shellfish, fish, and other aquatic fauna, and many transport food to terrestrial landforms where they may be mixed or confused with faunal remains left by humans. In this paper, we illustrate the problem by summarizing the habits of a number of animals known to feed on and transport shellfish and other aquatic animals. We also discuss examples where the remains of aquatic animals of non-human origin may have been confused with archaeological materials. Such biological imprints may be most pronounced on early sites, where questions about the antiquity of aquatic adaptations are paramount.

Identification of horse exploitation by Clovis hunters based on protein analysis

Abstract: Positive results were obtained from protein residue analysis on three Clovis points from Wally's Beach, southwestern Alberta. Two tested positive for Equus, the third for a bovid, probably Bison or Bootherium. All genera are present in the site remains. This finding clearly demonstrates use of Equus by Clovis hunters. Four 14 C dates indicate that the site was in use between 11,000 and 11,300 B.P.

Stone Raw Material Availability and Early Archaic Settlement in the Southeastern United States

Abstract: The band-macroband Early Archaic settlement model has had widespread use in Southeastern North American archaeology since its introduction some ten years ago (Anderson and Hanson 1988). Nevertheless, the model has undergone little critical testing. New data from Early Archaic assemblages in North Carolina and South Carolina are used to test the model's posited settlement range and site types. At issue is the role played by the limited distribution of high-quality knappable stone in Early Archaic adaptations. Contrary to the band-macroband model, it is suggested that high-quality tool stone played a more significant role in settlement adaptations than previously recognized. In particular, group mobility incorporated the geological occurrence of preferred tool stone. Moreover, it is argued that the level of tool curation in Early Archaic assemblages is telling us less about forager or collector site types than it is about the differential use of stone raw material. Last, a new settlement model is proposed whereby settlement ranges were not restricted to particular watersheds along the South Atlantic Slope; rather, settlement ranges “mapped on” to an area that varied annually across the landscape according to food availability but generally included regionally significant stone quarries.

Making and breaking pots in the Chaco world

Abstract: Manufacture and movement of pottery has a complex and changing history in the ancestral pueblo region. By the time great houses were being built in the Chaco sphere, four wares were in use and some areas were supplying large quantities of pots to the sites in Chaco Canyon. Widespread stylistic trends indicate mechanisms of communication and shared ideals over a huge area. Ceramics are an index of how large quantities of everyday items were transported more than 60 km to Chaco. The similarity of source and form assemblages at small sites and great houses demonstrates the close link between the two kinds of sites. The scale and layout of great houses and layering in great mounds associated with them are suggestive of periodic events that are components of Renfrew"s model of central Chaco as the location of devotional events. Scrutiny of layer contents indicates that such events were variable, and that lithics and ceramics from a single geographic source seem to be independently transported. Different areas may have been represented differently at different events, but layers always retain some of their complex composition of sources.

An integrative approach to mortuary analysis: social and symbolic dimensions of Chumash burial practices.

Abstract: Although most archaeologists recognize that valuable information about the social lives of ancient people can be obtained through the study of burial practices, it is clear that the symbolic nature of burial rituals makes interpreting their social significance a hazardous enterprise. These analytical difficulties can be greatly reduced using a research strategy that draws upon the strengths of a broad range of conceptually and methodologically independent data sources. We illustrate this approach by using archaeological data from cemeteries at Malibu, California, to explore an issue over which researchers are sharply divided: when did the simple chiefdoms of the Chumash Indians first appear in the Santa Barbara Channel area? First we establish the social correlates of Chumash burial practices through the comparison of historic-period cemetery data, ethnohistoric records, and ethnographic accounts. The resulting understanding of mortuary symbolism is then used to generate hypotheses about the social significance of prehistoric-period Malibu burial patterns. Finally, bioarchaeological data on genetic relationships, health status, and activity are used to independently test artifact-based hypotheses about prehistoric Chumash social organization. Together, these independent data sources constitute strong evidence for the existence of a ranked society with a hereditary elite during the late Middle period in the Santa Barbara Channel area.

Landscape Change and the Cultural Evolution of the Hohokam along the Middle Gila River and Other River Valleys in South-Central Arizona

Abstract: Changes in river floodplain morphology can have devastating consequences for irrigation agriculturalists Channel erosion occurred in the late nineteenth century, on the flood plain of the middle Gila River, Arizona and severely impacted the native Akimel O' odham (Pima) farmers Prior to the Akimel O' odham, the prehistoric Hohokam also pursued irrigation agriculture along this river Geoarchaeological investigations of the Gila River flood plain document a major period of channel cutting and widening sometime between AD 1020 to 1160 This channel erosion is coincident with the partial abandonment of large Hohokam villages and significant population rearrangements It also marks the beginning of a major social reorganization when ball-courts were replaced by platform mounds as the social integrative structure and the Hohokam sphere of influence contracted Other rivers utilized by the Hohokam—the Santa Cruz River, San Pedro River, and Tonto Creek-also experienced channel cutting between AD 1050 and 1150 Thus, a regional episode of channel erosion appears to have been a major factor that contributed to the reorganization seen in the Hohokam archaeological record These synchronous landscape changes would have severely impacted Hohokam irrigation systems and food production capabilities This undoubtedly created stresses within Hohokam society which in turn may have accelerated social, political, economic, ideological, and demographic changes that were already underway

Ritual and mound formation during the Bonito phase in Chaco Canyon

Abstract: Recent socioeconomic models for the Bonito phase (ca. A.D. 850-1150) in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, rely heavily on the inference that ritual activity was a causal factor in the design and construction of architectural features. A particular example of this inferential argument concerns earthen mounds, which are widely viewed as evidence for ceremonial gatherings and the intentional creation of sacred architecture. However, a critical evaluation of the physical attributes of Chacoan mounds indicates that these features do not offer clear evidence for either periodic ceremonies or intentional design.

Pink Chert, Projectile Points, and the Chacoan Regional System

Abstract: The most unusual aspect of chipped stone in Chaco Canyon is that materials were imported from a considerable distance but used almost exclusively as informal flake tools. Narbona Pass chert from the Chuska Mountains, 75 km away, is the most common nonlocal material found during the Chacoan Era (A.D. 900-1150). There are relatively few number of formal tools found in the Canyon, primarily projectile points, and a significant number of these do not seem to have been made in Chaco. New models of the organization of production offered by Earle, Hagstrum, Peregrine, and Renfrew (this issue) are evaluated using chipped-stone data collected by the Chaco Project during the 1970s. Chipped-stone data support the suggestion made by these scholars that great houses in Chaco Canyon were the focus of periodic communal gatherings. Deposition of quantities of Narbona Pass chert debitage in great house trash middens was apparently a ceremonial aspect of these gatherings, perhaps related to Puebloan concepts of renewal. Some projectile points appear to have been deposited in great house rooms or kivas as ritual offerings.

Abandonment Is Not as It Seems: An Approach to the Relationship between Site and Regional Abandonment

Abstract: Abandonments of residential sites by prehistoric farmers are most often explained as failures or responses to poor social or environmental conditions. These perspectives ignore the role of residential mobility among farmers as a regionally sustainable approach to land use. To understand the various reasons for abandonment of residential sites, movement patterns at both site and regional scales must be empirically linked. In this study of the eastern Mimbres area of southwestern New Mexico, we examine the relationship between site and regional occupation patterns. Rather than assume that site abandonment implies regional depopulation and that site abandonments are responses to stress or crisis, we use multiple lines of evidence to document the occupational histories of sites in an effort to evaluate whether the abandonment of villages correlates with regional abandonment. Architectural, ceramic, and chronometric data provide evidence for occupational continuity and growth of small residential sites during the twelfth century in the eastern Mimbres area in the context of the depopulation of large villages. This regional reorganization in settlement suggests a strategy for maintaining regional occupational continuity.

Household production in Chaco Canyon society

Abstract: The household is the most basic and flexible component of human social organization. It is through the household that we can understand the Chaco phenomenon from the point of view of agriculture and craft production. Households strive for autonomy and self sufficiency and they spread themselves thin to meet basic subsistence requirements. As a result, scheduling of agricultural and craft activities is critical to the success of the household. Craft technologies must be complementary with agricultural activities ; for example, pottery may be made during the heat of the day when agricultural tasks are at a lull. The concept of intersecting technologies suggests that technical knowledge, resources, and labor may be shared among crafts and other activities. Chacoan households probably specialized in the production of different crafis including pottery, jewelry, basketry, and other woven goods. Within the context of the Chaco regional system the mobilization of labor would have been through obligatory work assignments that complemented domestic autonomy in agricultural production and, as a result, would have been organized seasonally.

Matrilocality, corporate strategy, and the organization of production in the Chacoan world

Abstract: Kinship is central to an understanding of sociopolitical organization and the organization of production in Chaco Canyon. Between A.D. 700 and 900, lifeways in the Chacoan wor7ld underwent a transformation that reflects the evolution of matrilocal residence. Matrilocal groups became the foundation of a polity based on a corporate political strategy. Matrilocality provided the peoples of the Chaco region a social structure in which women were able to form stable agricultural communities while men were freed to take part in long-distance resource procurement and trade. Leaders mobilized goods from across the polity for corporate-affir-ming activities, such as construction of great houses. This corporate strategy is evident in an examination of turquoise production. The production of turquoise ornaments was diffuse and uncontrolled, but the consumption of turquoise, at least in Chaco Canyon, was highly centralized. This is what we would expect to see in a polity operating within a corporate strategy.

The organization of turquoise production and consumption by the prehistoric Chacoans

Abstract: For the prehistoric inhabitants of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico, turquoise was not an essential commodity for daily life. Yet, over 56,000 pieces of turquoise were recovered with two burials from Pueblo Bonito, the first site excavated in Chaco Canyon, and more turquoise is found in sites in Chaco Canyon when compared to other sites throughout the southwestern United States from ca. A.D. 900 through 1150. It may have been a long-distance trade item, exchanged for copper bells or macaws from further south, but its primary function was as a ritual item within the regional system. Because turquoise is found in sites established early in the Chaco sequence, this review will examine data from earlier periods to suggest which Bonito phase developments were innovations or continuations of previous practices. Some ritual uses of turquoise followed by contemporary Puebloan people probably have roots extending back into the Chaco era.

Going against the grain : Wood production in Chacoan society

Abstract: Wood used in the construction of Chacoan great houses represents a class of bulk artifact collected and prepared for use in buildings that can be reasonably argued to be public structures. The organization of production is generally held to be within the framework of a corporate chiefdom, as defined by cross-culurally inspired position papers for the Organization of Production symposium on the Chaco phenomenon. The organizational requirements for the acquisition, processing, and transport of construction elements are discussed through the examination of harvest schedule, the description and comparison of beam treaments, and labor imestment for the processing, transport, and stockpile management of the beams. The timing of harvest and the labor effort invested in construction wood is found to be different and more intense than in a sample of comporable-scale non-Chacoan buildings but within the means of self-paced, corporately motivated lask groups operating under the parameters of seasonal household schedules. Because of the consistency of handling, and quality of treatment, we envision the development of skilled task groups, perhaps at the level of a formal fraternal sociery, under the guidance and organizing skill of a limited number of leaders or specialists. More centralized corporate direction may have been an aspect of organization for only a brief period after A.D. 1070.

One person's food: how and why fish avoidance may affect the settlement and subsistence patterns of hunter-gatherers.

Abstract: Foraging strategies of modern hunter-gatherers may not accurately model resource use of specialized big-game hunters. Historic accounts from the Northern Plains of North America indicate that utilization of spring-spawning fish when large mammals were fat-depleted was not universally beneficial. Three independent reports from Europeans and Americans show that a sudden switch from a prolonged diet of lean red meat to fish produces symptoms consistent with lipid (fat) malabsorption. It is hypothesized that plains-adapted hunter-gatherers formed their camps in grassland environments and hunted big game throughout the winter The effects of eating lean meat alone were avoided by utilizing fetal and newborn animals and through the use of stored carbohydrate-rich foods. Groups associated with wooded environments wintered along the margins of the winter grazing range. They followed a diverse strategy with opportunistic use of big game and were able to exploit spring-spawning fish. Archaeological remains from 18 sites from the plains, parkland, and forests of Western Canada were used to test these hypotheses. The faunal assemblages, tools, and identifications of lipid residues from pottery vessels were consistent with the proposed strategies.

Paleoindian interaction and mating networks: reply to Moore and Moseley.

Abstract: How early human populations in North America maintained reproductive viability is a question that has shaped our research for over a decade. The concept of staging areas, mechanisms for band-macroband interaction, and an examination of how interaction networks could have formed and evolved over the course of the Paleoindian era are all solutions that we have presented.

Methodological issues in the study of assemblage diversity

Abstract: Three approaches that have been used to investigate assemblage diversity in the archaeological literature-two established and one new-are studied, with a particular emphasis on assemblage richness. It is argued that the established regression and simulation approaches, as often used, are only strictly valid if they assume what they are supposed to test-namely that assemblages are sampled from populations with the same richness or structure. Rarefaction methodology provides an alternative to the simulation approach and suggests that even if the latter is used, sampling without rather than with replacement is preferable. Some potential limitations of a recently proposed approach using jackknife methods are noted, and it is suggested that bootstrapping may be a more natural resampling method to use.

Archaeological politics and public interest in paleoamerican studies: lessons from Gordon Creek Woman and Kennewick Man.

Abstract: This paper discusses the Kennewick lawsuit as it relates to the intended purposes of NAGPRA. It also reflects upon comments made by Swedlund and Anderson (1999) in a recent American Antiquity Forum, which conceptually linked two ancient skeletons, Gordon Creek Woman and Kennewick Man. Their assertions indicate the need for clarifying specific issues and events pertaining to the case. We comment on how times have changed with the passage of NAGPRA, how differently these two skeletons have been treated by the media and the scientists interested in them, and show how discussions of biological affiliation have relevance. There is still much to be learned from Kennewick Man and Gordon Creek Woman. But attempts to bring the concept of race or racial typing into the picture show misunderstanding regarding the use of morphological data in tracing population historical relationships, not to mention obfuscating the scientific issues they raise.

A zooarchaeological signature for meat storage: re-thinking the drying utility index.

Abstract: Although the practice of food storage is important to many questions addressed by archaeologists, demonstrating its presence in archaeological contexts can be difficult or impossible. One potentially useful approach to meat storage is the concept of the Drying Utility Index, introduced by Lewis Binford (1978) to predict which carcass portions, with attached bone, will be selected for storage by drying. However, this index has not been widely used by zooarchaeologists, at least in part because the calculations involved in its derivation are extremely complex. This paper presents a new, simplified index, the Meat Drying Index, which is easier to calculate and more transparent than the Drying Utility Index, yet which retains all of its key attributes. This new index is applied to caribou bone samples from two regions: Binford's (1978) Nunamiut data from northern Alaska, and the contents of three caches from the Barren Grounds of Canada, near Baker Lake, Nunavut. In both cases, the Meat Drying Index correlates with the observed element frequencies as well as, or better than, the original Drying Utility Index. As a result, the new index may prove applicable to element distributions from a wide range of archaeological contexts in which storage of meat by drying is suspected.

Deciphering the organization of production in Chaco Canyon

Abstract: This special section of American Antiquity contains 9 papers that address the organization of production in Chaco Canyon during the height of the "Chaco Phenomenon," a regional system that covered the northern part of the American Southwest between A.D. 900 and 1150. These papers are part of an effort to synthesize the National Park Service's Chaco Project, a large-scale research project undertaken during the 1970s and early 1980s. Our introductory paper provides a brief history of research in Chaco Canyon, an overview of the Chaco phenomenon, a summary of the Chaco synthesis project, and a synopsis of the other papers. The first four papers in this issue were written by experts on prehistoric economic systems who developed models of the operation of production and distribution in Chaco Canyon. The following four papers, by Chaco scholars, use data from the Chaco Project to evaluate the models presented in the initial papers. There is general agreement that Chaco was a place where people from the surrounding region gathered for participation in communal ceremonial events, including the building of the most striking element of the Chaco phenomenon--great houses. Production is seen as household-based, serving to finance these communal gatherings.

Economic support of Chaco Canyon society

Abstract: I propose that Chaco Canyon was a chiefdom that emphasized a corporate political strategy (Blanton et al. 1996). Corporate groups define the relationship of people to resources, especially as the owners of productive land. Groups are materialized by public ceremonies and monuments, but leaders are typically faceless. Chaco's famous road system, the elaborate architecture of the great houses, and the regional procurement of specific resources support the proposal that Chaco was a corporate chiefdom. To create and sustain the regional institutions of a chiefdom requires not only leaders, but a system of finance, Chaco is argued to have had a system of staple finance, where surplus food and everyday technologies were mobilized from a broad supporting population. Mobilization was based on control of food production, but the method of control has not yet been defined for Chaco. The exchange of prestige goods such as turquoise, shell, and copper bells, was not part of the system of finance for Chaco, but was part of an interpersonal and noncentralized reciprocal exchange network such as those found broadly in egalitarian societies.

Behavioral Archaeology and the Study of Technology

Abstract: Loney's (2000) recent paper claims that American archaeologists have paid scant attention to the study of technological, especially ceramic, change. We argue that, in fact, interest in such change processes has grown greatly in recent decades and that Loney has overlooked much relevant literature. We support our general argument with a catalog of recent behavioral research on technological change.

Evidence for late paleoindian ritual from the Caradoc site (AFHJ -104), Southwestern Ontario, Canada

Abstract: The Caradoc site, dating ca. 10,500 to 10,000 B.P., provides a rare glimpse of sacred ritual among the earliest well-documented inhabitants of the Americas. It is a kind of site never before reported, where the majority of the artifacts have been purposefully broken or sacrificed. The site yielded 302, mainly chert, lithic fragments that fit together to form at least 71 artifacts. The material includes an unfluted concave-based point, three bifacial knives, 31 unfinished bifaces, 27 unifaces and nine non-siliceous items. Distributional analyses indicate that : 1) the material was initially spread over an area of as much as 12 m2 ; 2) the items were constrained in their distribution and could have been in a structure ; and 3) the artifacts were broken at the location where they were found.

Where Do Research Problems Come From

Abstract: In science, understanding the relationship between data and problems is crucial to successful research. When problems are imposed on the data and its organization-instead of addressing the empirical subject matter of the discipline-a major epistemological difficulty arises. What domains of knowledge can reliably inform about the imposed problem? I suggest that the many claims that all data are "theory dependent" are primarily accurate in those instances when a problem is imposed on a body of data. This is the approach of humanities. When a problem is recognized in the context of pattern recognition studies that are focused on data generated from the study of one"s subject matter, a different relationship exists between data and theory and fruitful theory building becomes possible. The latter is the approach of science. Central to this contrast is the issue of where problems come from.

How many frogs does it take to leap around the Americas? Comments on Anderson and Gillam.

Abstract: In modeling the colonization of the Americas, Anderson and Gillam (2000) employ size estimates for vanguard forager bands that are of dubious reproductive viability in light of human incest prohibitions and variable sex ratios at birth.