Journal ArticleDOI
Technological Organization and Hunter-Gather Land Use: a California Example
TLDR
In this article, a case study focused on mobility patterns in one area of coastal California to exemplify one approach to dealing with it is presented, emphasizing the importance of considering the ways in which local conditions mediate the effects of global aspects of human adaptations and, second, the interactions between multiple causal factors as conditioners of technology.Abstract:
Recent research has identified a number of general factors with important effects on flaked-stone technology but has been less effective in solving the problem of examining these factors in specific archaeological contexts. This paper discusses this issue and presents a case study focused on mobility patterns in one area of coastal California to exemplify one approach to dealing with it. This study emphasizes the importance of considering, first, the ways in which local conditions mediate the effects of global aspects of human adaptations and, second, the interactions between multiple causal factors as conditioners of technology. This example highlights the role played by multiple, distinct technological strategies within a single pattern of activity as well as the potential ambiguity of the relations between these strategies and global mobility patterns.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Tool-using strategies by early hominids at Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
TL;DR: The analysis suggests that early hominids at Olduvai may have been selective, applying distinctive strategies in making and using tools depending on the different types of raw materials available to them, in response to changes in raw material availability.
Journal ArticleDOI
Reduction strategies and geochemical characterization of lithic assemblages : A comparison of three case studies from western North America
Jelmer W. Eerkens,Jeffrey R. Ferguson,Michael D. Glascock,Craig E. Skinner,Sharon A. Waechter +4 more
TL;DR: In this article, a simple model of lithic procurement, reduction, and use is used to generate predictions for patterns in source diversity and average distance-to-source measurements for flaked stone assemblages left behind by small-scale and residentially mobile populations.
Journal ArticleDOI
High-tech foragers? Folsom and later Paleoindian technology on the Great Plains
TL;DR: This article reviewed the development of this reconstruction and considered the degree to which data from assemblages of Paleoindian flaked stone tools support it, and concluded that the great difference between what the literature says about Paleo-Indian technology and the documented character of that technology suggests that Paleo-indian lifeways were far more variable than current discussions suggest.
Book ChapterDOI
The History and Development of Projectile Technology Research
TL;DR: In the present context, analyses are limited to discussion of spears, spearthrowers, arrows, and bows as mentioned in this paper and do not include other projectile technologies used by prehistoric hunters, such as bolas, slingshots, and boomerangs.
Journal ArticleDOI
On the utility and economization of unretouched flakes: The effects of exterior platform angle and platform depth
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored how particular characteristics of individual, unretouched flakes can be altered in ways that increase their economy, as reflected in the ratio of edge length to mass.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Willow Smoke and Dogs’ Tails: Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems and Archaeological Site Formation
TL;DR: In this paper, a theory of adaptation is proposed to anticipate both differences in settlement-subsistence strategies and patterning in the archaeological record through a more detailed knowledge of the distribution of environmental variables.
Journal ArticleDOI
Organization and Formation Processes: Looking at Curated Technologies
TL;DR: In this article, the authors draw upon ethnographic experiences among the Nunamiut Eskimo for insights into the effects of technological organization on interassemblage variability Varying situationally conditioned strategies of raw material procurement, tool design and manufacture, and disposal are described as clues to site function or "placement" in a subsistence-settlement system.
Journal ArticleDOI
Technological Efficiency and Tool Curation
TL;DR: It is argued that the nature and distribution of lithic resources critically affect technological efficiency and two aspects of curation, maintenance and recycling are discussed, asserting that they are responses to raw material shortages.
Journal ArticleDOI
Coming into the Country: Early Paleoindian Hunting and Mobility
Robert L. Kelly,Lawrence Todd +1 more
TL;DR: In the case of early (ca. 12,000-10,000 B.P.) Paleoindian groups in the Americas, the availability of neighboring groups with a detailed knowledge of local resource geography could not be relied upon as discussed by the authors.