Showing papers in "American Antiquity in 2006"
TL;DR: An assessment of the informatics needs of archaeology is provided, an ambitious vision for a distributed disciplinary information infrastructure (cyberinfrastructure) is articulated, the challenges posed by its development are discussed, and initial steps toward its realization are outlined.
Abstract: This forum reports the results of a National Science Foundation—funded workshop that focused on the integration and preservation of digital databases and other structured data derived from archaeological contexts. The workshop concluded that for archaeology to achieve its potential to advance long-term, scientific understandings of human history, there is a pressing need for an archaeological information infrastructure that will allow us to archive, access, integrate, and mine disparate data sets. This report provides an assessment of the informatics needs of archaeology, articulates an ambitious vision for a distributed disciplinary information infrastructure (cyberinfrastructure), discusses the challenges posed by its development, and outlines initial steps toward its realization. Finally, it argues that such a cyberinfrastructure has enormous potential to contribute to anthropology and science more generally. Concept-oriented archaeological data integration will enable the use of existing data to answer compelling new questions and permit syntheses of archaeological data that rely not on other investigators' conclusions but on analyses of meaningfully integrated new and legacy data sets.
133 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the daily practices of food preparation and consumption at the Neolithic Anatolian site of Catalhoyuk and present the major food activities suggested from archaeological evidence, including the timing and range of possible ingredients eaten by the residents of this thousand-year settlement.
Abstract: We consider the daily practices of food preparation and consumption at the Neolithic Anatolian site of Catalhoyuk. We present the major food activities suggested from the archaeological evidence, including the timing and range of possible ingredients eaten by the residents of this thousand-year settlement. Plant, animal, and mineral resources, as well as the food production and preparation practices, are viewed in the context of the seasonal cycle. The food-related activities practiced at Catalhoyuk within each of the seasons are placed into five primary groups: production and procurement, processing, cooking, presentation, and eating. The daily household acts associated with these categories are discussed in detail. Using flora, fauna, micromorphological, lithic, ceramic, clay and architectural evidence, we present a picture of a community that was relatively healthy. The residents had a diet that relied heavily on plant foodstuffs, with wild plants remaining an important and valuable part of the daily and seasonal food practices throughout. The people of Catalhoyuk ate a range of animal products, including meat obtained from domesticated sheep/goats, wild cattle, small and large game, and to a more limited extent, eggs and waterfowl. Their social life can be seen through these foodways.
127 citations
TL;DR: This article found that points with a high thickness: length ratio (>121) were slightly more durable than those with a low ratio (>.121) and that hardness of the material struck was a significant predictor of a point's durability.
Abstract: We describe an experiment that tests the hypothesis that projectile points with high thickness: length ratios are more durable than points with low thickness: length ratios. Fifty obsidian projectile points were manufactured to specific lengths, widths, and thicknesses. These were then fired into a deer carcass with a bow repeatedly until each point broke. None of the points were resharpened. The hardness of the material struck was a significant predictor of a point's durability. Controlling for this variable, however, we found that points with a high thickness: length ratio (>.121) were slightly albeit significantly more durable than those with a low ratio. No other attribute of size or shape was a significant predictor of durability.
112 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a simplified lexicon that is widely applicable across disciplinary, temporal and regional divides and lay out a model, called the "continuum of boundary dynamics" which is meant to aid researchers in characterizing various types of boundary situations.
Abstract: Although the study of frontiers is of fundamental importance to a variety of academic fields and subdisciplines, few researchers have proposed terminology, models or conceptual frameworks that allow a cross-disciplinary supra-regional comparison of frontier dynamics In this paper I take three steps toward rectifying this situation First, I propose a simplified lexicon that is widely applicable across disciplinary, temporal and regional divides This lexicon is meant to be a starting point in defining boundary situations Second, lay out a model, called the “continuum of boundary dynamics” This model is meant to aid researchers in characterizing various types of boundary situations And third, propose a model, called the “borderland matrix” with which to visualize the dynamic interaction between different categories of boundaries This model is meant to aid researchers in isolating processes that occur in borderlands It is my position that only through systematic comparisons of boundary situations at various times and locations can we hope to understand the processes that take place in borderlands By defining and characterizing boundary situations and then isolating the processes taking place there, I believe that we will come much closer to understanding the common and unique themes that make frontier studies a central interregional and interdisciplinary subject of study
111 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, DNA identification of salmon remains from the site of Namu on the central coast of British Columbia shows use of a variety of species and an emphasis on pink salmon over the course of the past 7,000 years, supporting arguments that Namu was a permanent village settlement dependent on a salmon storage economy throughout this time.
Abstract: Ancient DNA identification of salmon remains from the site of Namu on the central coast of British Columbia shows use of a variety of species and an emphasis on pink salmon over the course of the past 7,000 years. These results support arguments that Namu was a permanent village settlement dependent on a salmon storage economy throughout this time. This pattern of subsistence and settlement predates by several millennia the first substantial evidence for population expansion or social differentiation in the region. Periodic salmon shortages in the period after 2000 cal B.C., which are associated with local and regional disruptions in settlement and increased reliance on more marginal resources, appear to be the result of failures in the pink salmon fishery.
102 citations
TL;DR: In this article, LiDAR data and derived imagery need to be integrated with existing forms of archaeological data for their full potential to be realized, which may reveal surface indications of archaeological deposits unnoticed when using more conventional discovery techniques.
Abstract: Topographic and image maps of archaeological landscapes can be made using airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data. Such maps contain more three-dimensional data than conventional maps and may be more spatially accurate. In addition to providing a record of topography, LiDAR images may reveal surface indications of archaeological deposits unnoticed when using more conventional discovery techniques. LiDAR data and derived imagery need to be integrated with existing forms of archaeological data for their full potential to be realized.
92 citations
TL;DR: Andrefsky et al. as discussed by the authors verified an Index of Retouch for Hafted Bifaces for the first time, using an annotated version of the index from the 18th century.
Abstract: Andrefsky. 2006. Experimental and Archaeological Verification of an Index of Retouch for Hafted Bifaces. American Antiquity 71:743-758.
90 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an alternative model is proposed that distinguishes between motor skills and knowledge needed to do tasks effectively and takes into account assessment of the time cost for developing skills, rather than a shortage of skilled, target individuals due to decrease in population size.
Abstract: A recent article has suggested that maintenance of complex tools and associated tasks in a group depends on the presence of skilled individuals to serve as targets for imitation. The expected number of skilled target individuals, it is argued, relates to the population size. It is predicted that population size and maximum complexity of tools and/or tasks should correlate, hence a decrease in population size could lead to maladaptive loss of skills. Data from Tasmania are said to support the argument. However, the argument neither agrees with the archaeological data from Tasmania nor ethnographic observations on hunter-gatherer societies. Instead of being an example of a group that underwent maladaptive loss, the indigenous people of Tasmania appear to have used tools sufficient for the tasks at hand. An alternative model is proposed that distinguishes between motor skills and knowledge needed to do tasks effectively and takes into account assessment of the time cost for developing skills. Loss of skills more likely relates to change in the mode of resource procurement or change in technology rather than a shortage of skilled, target individuals due to decrease in population size.
82 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the process of reorganization using the emerging perspective of resilience theory and evaluate this assumption using archaeological data, which offer an opportunity to investigate a time span rarely examined in studies of resilience and reorganization.
Abstract: Collapse and abandonment dominate the popular literature on prehistoric societies, yet we know that reorganization is a more common process by which social and ecological relationships change. We explore the process of reorganization using the emerging perspective of resilience theory. Ecologists and social scientists working within a resilience perspective have argued that reorganization is an important component of long-term adaptive cycles, but it remains understudied in both social science and ecology. One of the central assumptions to emerge from the resilience perspective is that declines in the diversity of social and ecological units contribute to transformations in social and ecological systems. We evaluate this assumption using archaeological data, which offer an opportunity to investigate a time span rarely examined in studies of resilience and reorganization. We focus on the 11th to 13th century in the eastern Mimbres area of southwestern New Mexico, a period within which a substantial reorganization occurred. Much is known about the regional-scale changes that resulted in the depopulation of nearly every large village in the Mimbres region, what some have referred to as the “Mimbres collapse.” Our analyses examine both continuity and change in aspects of house- and village-level reorganization.
75 citations
TL;DR: In the lower Mississippi River basin, there is an abrupt gap in the archaeological sequence at this time and pronounced differences between Late Archaic and Early Woodland archaeological remains as mentioned in this paper, suggesting the river bottom was abandoned for several hundred years as a location for sustained habitation.
Abstract: Archaeologists frequently assume the cultural transition from Archaic to Woodland (ca. 3000–2500 cal B.P.) in the Mississippi River basin is a gradual process. In the lower Mississippi Valley, however, there is an abrupt gap in the archaeological sequence at this time and pronounced differences between Late Archaic and Early Woodland archaeological remains. Elsewhere in the basin, this transition is marked by an occupation hiatus or decline and is accompanied by significant changes in settlement and material culture organization. In most parts of the floodplain of the Mississippi River and its tributaries there are few sites dating to this interval suggesting the river bottom was abandoned for several hundred years as a location for sustained habitation. High-resolution climate data demonstrates an episode of rapid global climate change involving significant alterations in temperature and precipitation in the period ca. 3000–2600 cal B.P. The proximate cause of this global climate occurrence is change in galactic cosmic ray intensity and solar irradiation possibly amplified by variations in the earth"s geomagnetic field. Global climate changes led to greatly increased flood frequencies and magnitudes in the Mississippi River watershed during the shift from Late Archaic to Early Woodland. In northeast Louisiana, increased flooding led to major fluvial reorganization that caused settlement abandonment and is associated with the demise of Poverty Point culture. Climate change and associated flooding is implicated as one cause of major cultural reorganization at the end of the Archaic throughout much of eastern North America.
67 citations
TL;DR: This article used viewshed analysis to determine how the natural and political landscapes affected the settlement location choices of the Late Woodland and early Historic Onondaga Iroquois, and found that proximity to critical resources and defensibility both factored into the decision of where communities would place villages.
Abstract: A multitude of factors, ranging from environmental to ideological, determine where human settlements are placed on the landscape. In archaeological contexts, finding the reasons behind settlement choice can be very difficult and often requires the use of ethnographic analogies and/or modeling in a geographic information system (GIS). Archaeologists have used one particular GIS-based method, viewshed analysis, to examine site features such as defensibility and control over economic hinterlands. I use viewshed analysis in this case study to determine how the natural and political landscapes affected the settlement location choices of the Late Woodland and early Historic Onondaga Iroquois. Proximity to critical resources and defensibility both factored into the decision of where communities would place villages. Although this study shows that resources, such as productive soils, had a more significant effect on settlement choice, Iroquois communities were also taking measures to maintain the defensibility of their villages. This examination displays how GIS analyses in archaeology can go beyond the statistical results and help us understand past behavior.
TL;DR: The role of scientific study within the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) has been examined in this paper, where the authors conclude that the human remains of the early Holocene human remains known as Kennewick Man might have qualified for study under NAGPRA even if found to be Native American and culturally affiliated with the claimant tribes, which would have enabled study to proceed from the outset.
Abstract: Debates over disposition options for an inadvertently discovered set of early Holocene human remains known as Kennewick Man have fueled discussions about the scientific, cultural, and ethical implications of the anthropological study of human remains. A high-profile lawsuit over Kennewick Man has led to the most extensive judicial analysis to date of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the primary law affecting access to, and the ultimate disposition of, ancient human remains found in the United States. However, despite years of litigation, some key questions remain unanswered. The judicial decisions in Kennewick address important questions about determining Native American status and assessing cultural affiliation under the law. However, the court opinions fail to address the role of scientific study within NAGPRA's confines. This article examines NAGPRA and concludes that two provisions in the law expressly permit the scientific study of human remains if certain conditions are met. Significantly, Kennewick Man might have qualified for study under NAGPRA even if found to be Native American and culturally affiliated with the claimant tribes, which would have enabled study to proceed from the outset while the parties debated the issues of Native American status and potential cultural affiliation.
TL;DR: This reply to Read's (2006) critique of my paper (Henrich 2004) is divided into three parts, which clarifies misinterpretations and mischaracterizations of both Dual Inheritance Theory in general and my model specifically.
Abstract: This reply to Read's (2006) critique of my paper (Henrich 2004) is divided into three parts. Part I clarifies misinterpretations and mischaracterizations of both Dual Inheritance Theory in general and my model specifically. Part II addresses several problems in Read's empirical analyses of forager toolkits, and presents an alternative analysis. Part III tackles some common misunderstandings about the relationship between cost-benefit models (such as Read's) and cultural evolutionary modeling approaches, as well as highlighting some concerns with Read's efforts. In writing this, I have tried to introduce the reader to the issues in debate, but to fully understand this reply, one should read both my paper and Read’s critique.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the archaeological record of late Pleistocene Alaska, organized around the characteristics and chronology of three complexes: the microblade-bearing Denali complex, the Nenana complex, and the Mesa complex.
Abstract: Alaska is commonly viewed as a gateway between the Old and New Worlds, and as such, figures prominently in most models of the peopling of the New World. With a growing number of archaeological sites dating to the terminal Pleistocene, Alaska might be expected to provide direct evidence bearing on the colonization of the Americas. Based on 27 site components with 114 radiocarbon dates, this paper discusses the archaeological record of late Pleistocene Alaska, organized around the characteristics and chronology of three complexes: the microblade-bearing Denali complex, the Nenana complex, and the Mesa complex. This paper shows that the archaeological record of late Pleistocene Alaska is quite diverse, and not lacking in controversy and conflicting interpretations. In addition, this period of archaeological diversity coincides with the Younger Dryas climatic event. However, none of the reliably dated sites is older than the earliest evidence of human occupation further south in the Americas. Despite this, evidence from DNA studies points strongly to a north-central Asian homeland for Native Americans, upholding Alaska as the point of entry into the New World. Suggestions are offered, then, as to why the Alaskan record remains silent about the initial peopling of the New World.
TL;DR: In this paper, an ethnographic and archaeological evidence from western North America supports the origin of some art in sympathetic magic in both California and the Plains and provides a case for hunting magic as one of a series of ritual reasons for making rock art in the Columbia Plateau.
Abstract: Much rock art worldwide was traditionally interpreted in terms of "hunting magic," in part based on the related concept of "sympathetic magic." In the last forty years, these interpretations were disproven in many regions and now are largely ignored as potential explanations for the origin and function of the art. In certain cases this may be premature. Examination of the ethnographic and archaeological evidence from western North America supports the origin of some art in sympathetic magic (often related to sorcery) in both California and the Plains and provides a case for hunting magic as one of a series of ritual reasons for making rock art in the Columbia Plateau. Both case studies emphasize the potential diversity in origin, function, and symbolism of shamanistic rock art.
Abstract: Recent block excavations at the Mountaineer site near Gunnison, Colorado, have yielded an unusual assemblage of Folsom artifacts and features, including a prehistoric structure. The stone assemblage from this excavation is composed of 35,478 pieces. The tools are typical Folsom style, but, like the debitage, they are mainly of local material. Faunal material shows some processing of large mammals, including bison. The findings at Mountaineer evince additional variability in early Paleoindian adaptations beyond that ascribed by the familiar model of Folsom settlement.
TL;DR: This paper analyzed the residues from two unmodified lithic grinding tools, identified as possible plant processing tools, for starch grains and found that not only were a nuinber of wild plant species, such as choke cherry (Prunus virginiana), saskatoon berry (Amelanchier alnifolia) and likely prairie turnip (Psoralea esculenta), processed with these implements, but so too was maize (Zea mays).
Abstract: The ethnographic and ethnohistoric records from the Northern and Canadian Plains indicate that a variety of plants were utilized by past peoples. These accounts provide two important insights into plant use in this region where very little archaeological evidence exists for plant utilization. First, plant processing tools are most likely to be unmodified lithic tools that may escape our recognition. Second, a variety of plants, which can be identified via starch grain analysis, were processed with these tools. This project analyzed the residues from two unmodified lithic grinding tools, identified as possible plant processing tools, for starch grains. Our results indicate that not only were a nuinber of wild plant species, such as choke cherry (Prunus virginiana), saskatoon berry (Amelanchier alnifolia) and likely prairie turnip (Psoralea esculenta), processed with these implements, but so too was maize (Zea mays). These results not only provide important insight with respect to identifying a tool class, plant use, and trade within our study area, but also provide an exceptional window into the use of wild plant species, an aspect of human history that is poorly understood in many regions of the world in addition to the Northern Plains.
TL;DR: This paper found evidence from the Wally's Beach site in southwestern Alberta indicates Pleistocene horses were hunted by Clovis age peoples, including a cut-marked hyoid indicative of butchering and a flake projecting below one of the vertebrae that establishes the archaeological material is not intrusive.
Abstract: Evidence from the Wally's Beach site in southwestern Alberta indicates Pleistocene horses were hunted by Clovis age peoples. A number of artifacts are associated with a horse skeleton, including a cut-marked hyoid indicative of butchering and a flake projecting below one of the vertebrae that establishes the archaeological material is not intrusive. A large unmodified cobble apparently was used to mark the kill or anchor the cache. Six other finds of horse remains also have associated lithic artifacts. Horse behavior is explored to speculate on hunting strategy. It is concluded that humans and climate change probably contributed to the late Pleistocene extinction of North American horses.
TL;DR: The Driftless Area of the Upper Midwestern United States offers a case study for the transition from hunter-gatherer (Late Woodland Effigy Mound) to agricultural (Oneota) societies between ca. A.D. 950 and 1150, a period that coincided with the northward expansion of Middle Mississippian cultures from the American Bottom.
Abstract: The Driftless Area of the Upper Midwestern United States offers a case study for the transition from hunter-gatherer (Late Woodland Effigy Mound) to agricultural (Oneota) societies between ca. A.D. 950 and 1150, a period that coincided with northward expansion of Middle Mississippian cultures from the American Bottom. Previous studies have not adequately explained the regional disappearance of Effigy Mound cultures, the appearance of Oneota cultures, or the cultural changes that occurred during this period. Our analysis considers ecological (deer and firewood) and cultural (population packing, community organization, hunting technology, and warfare) factors to develop a testable model applicable to broader regions. We propose that increasing Late Woodland populations reached the region's "packing threshold," disrupting a flexible seasonal round based on residential mobility and triggering shortages of two essential resources, white-tailed deer and firewood, which in turn led Late Woodland groups to abandon vast portions of the Driftless Area. The intrusion of Middle Mississippian peoples from the south created additional disruption and conflict. Remnant Woodland and Mississippian peoples amalgamated briefly in the region's first villages, which were palisaded. After A.D. 1150, Oneota cultures emerged, reoccupying specific localities in clustered settlements.
TL;DR: The analysis of DNA extracted from archaeological specimens to address anthropological questions is becoming increasingly common as mentioned in this paper, and despite widespread interest in ancient DNA (aDNA), the difficulties inherent in aDNA analysis are not generally appreciated by researchers outside of the field.
Abstract: The analysis of DNA extracted from archaeological specimens to address anthropological questions is becoming increasingly common. Despite widespread interest in ancient DNA (aDNA), the difficulties inherent in aDNA analysis are not generally appreciated by researchers outside of the field. The majority of samples subjected to aDNA analysis often fail to produce results, and successful analysis is typically limited to specimens that exhibit excellent preservation. Contamination of samples with exogenous DNA is an ongoing problem and requires careful design of research strategies to limit and identify all DNA contaminants. Overall, aDNA analysis is a highly specialized and technical field that requires extensive training and can be quite expensive. Thus, each aDNA study should be carefully planned with significant input from archaeologists, physical anthropologists, linguists, and related researchers and should focus on well-preserved samples that are likely to produce a clear answer to a question that is not amenable to nongenetic analysis. In this manuscript, I explain the problems and prospects of various anthropological applications of aDNA technology. I present a series of previously published studies, which are of general anthropological interest, to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of aDNA methods in each case. I also provide a checklist of questions to evaluate the utility of archaeological remains for aDNA analysis and to provide guidelines when designing an aDNA study.
TL;DR: In this paper, the development and antiquity of the Midewiwin ritual, a ceremonial complex that is known historically throughout the Great Lakes region, were explored. But the Mide origin story was not considered.
Abstract: This paper considers the archaeological study of ritual and explores the interrelationships that exist between ideologically meaningful accounts of ritual and the material representations of ritual practice that remain for archaeological evaluation. Specifically, the paper addresses the development and antiquity of the Midewiwin ritual, a ceremonial complex that is known historically throughout the Great Lakes region. The serendipitous discovery of a linkage between the Mide origin tale of Bear's Journey and the layout of the Late Prehistoric earthwork enclosures of northern Michigan provides an opportunity to document how a ritual system is represented in the archaeological record and to evaluate how the understanding of the archaeology is altered by having access to the meaning underpinning the ritual performance. The research provides unambiguous evidence for the prehistoric antiquity of the Mide ceremony and illustrates the contribution archaeology can make to understanding the long-term processes of ritual practice and change.
TL;DR: The most recent field season of the Kalinga Ethnoarchaeological Project as mentioned in this paper addressed ceramic discard and midden formation in Dalupa, an upland community of 380 people in Pasil Municipality of the Philippines, where the discarded vessels often reach middens in a complete or reconstructible state, but are reduced to small sherds by cultural disturbance processes.
Abstract: The 2001 field season of the Kalinga Ethnoarchaeological Project addressed ceramic discard and midden formation in Dalupa, an upland community of 380 people in Pasil Municipality, Kalinga Province, the Philippines. Despite the increasing reliance on metal cooking vessels in the project area over time, two seasons of the Kalinga Ethnoarchaeological Project still provided enough data to describe ceramic discard and accumulation within middens. Dalupa middens receive most discarded vessels and a representative sample of discarded vessel types. This is in part because transport to water sources and washing, activities heavily associated with vessel breakage, now occur primarily within the residential area. Vessels often reach middens in a complete or reconstructible state, but are reduced to small sherds by cultural disturbance processes. Because people usually use the closest midden, catchment areas for middens can be predicted if the spatial distribution of contemporaneous residences, other activity areas, and middens is known. This work may help researchers distinguish the discarded ceramics from different households or groups of households, control for any biases in accumulation, and connect ceramic attributes with social variables of interest.
TL;DR: The results of several experiments are presented to investigate how the detection functions of surveyors vary for different artifact types on surfaces with differing visibility when visual surface inspection (“fieldwalking”) is the survey method.
Abstract: This paper presents the results of several experiments to investigate how the detection functions of surveyors vary for different artifact types on surfaces with differing visibility when visual surface inspection ("fieldwalking") is the survey method. As prospecting theory predicts, successful detection declines exponentially with distance away from transects and detection as a function of search time displays diminishing returns. However, these functions vary by visibility, artifact type, and other factors. The incidence of false targets-incorrect identifications of artifacts-has somewhat more impact at greater range but has little or no relationship with search time. Our results provide a rationale for selection of transect intervals and distribution of survey effort, and also facilitate evaluation of survey results, allowing more realistic estimates of how much a survey missed.
TL;DR: In this paper, the existence of a multivillage defensive network aimed at regulating access to the entire Fraser River watershed rather than simply defending individual settlements was investigated in the Northwest Coast of British Columbia.
Abstract: Whether or not traditional centralized leadership existed among the central Coast Salish of the GulfofGeorgia-Puget Sound Regions is a topic of ongoing interest and debate among archaeologists, social anthropologists, ethnohistorians, and Aboriginal communities. Recent findings in the lower Fraser River Canyon of British Columbia of a unique class of archaeological site-rock fortifications, newly identified on the Northwest Coast-present an opportunity to address this discussion. Description of these features and analysis of their situation within the physical and social landscapes of the Fraser Canyon provides insight into the nature of Sto:lō warfare and defensive strategy. I propose the existence of a multivillage defensive network aimed at regulating access to the entire "Canyon watershed" rather than simply defending individual settlements. I present a "corporate family group" model of sociopolitical organization through which this defensive system operated-representing a minimum level of intercommunity governance traditionally known to the Sto:lo of the Gulf of Georgia Region This proposition provides an alternate view to the long-held belief that individual households were the traditional centers of economy, and by extension, of political authority among the Aboriginal peoples of the Northwest Coast. These results affect the current understanding and reconstruction of traditional expressions of Sto:lō identity engrained in sociopolitical organization.
TL;DR: For nearly 150 years Stallings Island, Georgia has figured prominently in the conceptualization of Late Archaic culture in the American Southeast, most notably in its namesake pottery series, the oldest in North America, and more recently, in models of economic change among hunter-gatherer societies broadly classified as the Shell Mound Archaic as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: For nearly 150 years Stallings Island, Georgia has figured prominently in the conceptualization of Late Archaic culture in the American Southeast, most notably in its namesake pottery series, the oldest in North America, and more recently, in models of economic change among hunter-gatherer societies broadly classified as the Shell Mound Archaic. Recent field-work resulting in new radiocarbon assays from secure contexts pushes back the onset of intensive shellfish gathering at Stallings Island several centuries; enables recognition of a hiatus in occupation that coincides with the regional advent of pottery making; and places abandonment at ca. 3500 B.P. Analysis of collections and unpublished field records from a 1929 Peabody expedition suggests that the final phase of occupation involved the construction of a circular village and plaza complex with household storage and a formalized cemetery, as well as technological innovations to meet the demands of increased settlement permanence. Although there are too few data to assess the degree to which more permanent settlement led to population-resource imbalance, several lines of evidence suggest that economic changes were stimulated by ritual intensification.
TL;DR: A recent paper by Truncer (2004) perpetuates the recalcitrant misconception that soapstone vessel technology uniformly predates the inception of pottery across eastern North America.
Abstract: A recent paper by Truncer (2004) perpetuates the recalcitrant misconception that soapstone vessel technology uniformly predates the inception of pottery across eastern North America. Whereas soapstone vessels indeed preceded the local adoption of pottery in limited areas, the bulk of stratigraphic and independent radiometric data supports the conclusion that soapstone vessels either accompanied or postdated the inception of pottery in many parts of the Eastern Woodlands. I reiterate here my criticism of benchmark studies that have been uncritically accepted to support the greater antiquity of soapstone. Given the coincidence of pottery and soapstone in many areas of the Eastern Woodlands, any explanation for the use of soapstone vessels must consider the relative costs and benefits of alternative container technology. Moreover evidence for use of soapstone vessels in mortuary contexts, caches, and in locations far from geological sources of soapstone suggests that their significance resided not simply in the domestic economy of nut processing, as suggested by Truncer, but in the political economy of group formation and alliance.
TL;DR: The hypothesis presented by Jones and Klar (2005) that elements of prehistoric Chumash technology and language arrived from East Polynesia is considered in this paper, but this hypothesis is not supported by the available archaeological evidence and the chronology of East Polynesian colonization is probably too late for diffusion to southern California before A.D. 700.
Abstract: The hypothesis presented by Jones and Klar (2005) that elements of prehistoric Chumash technology and language arrived from East Polynesia is considered. Trans-oceanic diffusion in general should not be rejected out of hand, but in this case it is improbable that it involved East Polynesia. There are substantial differences in the sewn-plank canoes at issue and the compound hooks are of a general form that is not confined to Polynesia. The chronology of East Polynesian colonization is probably too late for diffusion to southern California before A.D. 700. East Polynesian seafaring may have been inadequate to reach the Californian coast. If the explanation is diffusionary, then a source in East Asia is more plausible.
TL;DR: The development of social differentiation was tied to this system, indicating that gender complementarity and the accumulation of productive and ritual power into a limited group of women and men may have been an important factor in social hierarchies in many Middle Range societies as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Gender analyses have provided useful insights into the social organization of the people anthropologists study. Here we demonstrate how Casas Grandes gender roles influenced other aspects of Casas Grandes worldview and social life. Medio period (A.D. 1200–1450) iconography depicts differences between males and females. Gender roles were not only defined by their proximity to males and females but to birds and serpents. Furthermore, Casas Grandes cosmology was based on gender complementarity that combined the productive, reproductive, and ritual activities of men and women within a single system. The development of social differentiation was tied to this system, indicating that gender complementarity and the accumulation of productive and ritual power into a limited group of women and men may have been an important factor in the development of social hierarchies in many Middle Range societies.
TL;DR: This paper investigated Pueblo responses to Spanish colonization in the seventeenth century and found that women who made glaze ware bowls lived in villages under the direct control of Spanish missionaries, and appear to have deliberately simplified and masked the iconography on their vessels.
Abstract: This paper draws upon James Scott's insights concerning the "public" and "hidden" transcripts of subjugated peoples to investigate Pueblo responses to Spanish colonization in the seventeenth century. We focus on the marked changes that occurred in the decoration of two ceramic wares produced in the Salinas Pueblo region of central New Mexico, and suggest that these changes express one aspect of native resistance to Spanish missionary efforts to eradicate Pueblo religious practices. We document that differences in the impact of missionization between the northern and southern Salinas pueblos led to marked and divergent changes in the ways women decorated glaze and white ware vessels. Women who made glaze ware bowls lived in villages under the direct control of Spanish missionaries, and appear to have deliberately simplified and masked the iconography on their vessels. Women who made white ware jars, however, lived in villages without resident Spanish missionaries. Following Spanish colonization, these women began decorating their vessels with detailed, diverse ritual iconography, apparently an effort to reinforce, and probably to teach, religious knowledge.
TL;DR: In this article, an analysis of nearly 200 prehispanic upland farming locations around Casas Grandes in northwestern Chihuahua indicates that land modification was widespread and involved a range of farming strategies depending on micro-topographic setting.
Abstract: Analysis of nearly 200 prehispanic upland farming locations around Casas Grandes in northwestern Chihuahua indicates that land modification was widespread and involved a range of farming strategies depending on microtopographic setting. Most significantly, some cultivation seems to have been organized or controlled by the leaders of the Casas Grandes polity. Unusually large fields associate with small sites that likely served special administrative and/or ritual roles and that are in sparsely occupied locations.