Download or read book Seasonality and Sedentism written by Thomas R. Rocek and published by Peabody Museum Press. This book was released on 1998-04-28 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The papers in this volume explore the issues and techniques of archaeological site seasonality and settlement analysis. Examples introduce a broad range of specific analytical techniques of seasonality assessment and show variability and similarity in settlement patterns worldwide.
Download or read book Sedentism and Mobility in a Social Landscape written by Mark Varien and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Varien's research clearly demonstrates the need to view agriculturalists from a perspective that differs from the hunter-gatherer model. This innovative study shows why current explanations for site abandonment cannot by themselves account for residential mobility and offers valuable insights into the archaeology of small-scale agriculture.
Download or read book Sedentism and Mobility in a Social Landscape written by Mark Varien and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Research on hunting and gathering peoples has given anthropologists a long-standing conceptual framework of sedentism and mobility based on seasonality and ecological constraints. This work challenges that position by arguing that mobility is a socially negotiated activity and that neither mobility nor sedentism can be understood outside of its social context. Drawing on research in the Mesa Verde region that focuses on communities and households, Mark Varien expands the social, spatial, and temporal scales of archaeological analysis to propose a new model for population movement. Rather than viewing sedentism and mobility as opposing concepts, he demonstrates that they were separate strategies that were simultaneously employed. Households moved relatively frequently--every one or two generations--but communities persisted in the same location for much longer. Varien shows that individuals and households negotiated their movements in a social landscape structured by these permanent communities. Varien's research clearly demonstrates the need to view agriculturalists from a perspective that differs from the hunter-gatherer model. This innovative study shows why current explanations for site abandonment cannot by themselves account for residential mobility and offers valuable insights into the archaeology of small-scale agriculture.
Download or read book Farmers as Hunters written by Susan Kent and published by CUP Archive. This book was released on 1989-08-31 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Farmers as hunters analyses from an essentially ethnographic perspective the role of hunters in small-scale farming societies. The twelve contributors examine the effects of hunting and mobility on behaviour, diet, economy and material culture at both culture-specific and cross-cultural levels. The influence of sedentism and the increasing use of domesticates is also explored across a wide range of societies from the American southwest and Amazonian to Africa, New Guinea and the Phillipines. Differing perceptions of the status of animals and plants are reviewed and cultural values are throughout given due weight in a field where discussion too often verges on the economically deterministic.
Download or read book Sedentism and Subsistence in the Late Archaic written by Alexandra L. Parsons and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ABSTRACT: This research evaluates sedentism and the seasonal use of resources during the Late Archaic period in the coastal zone of the Southeastern U.S. Specifically, this research examines sedentism at the Guana shell ring near St. Augustine, Florida, which dates to approximately 3400 cal B.P. This study employs the incremental growth technique to determine the season of death of quahog clams (Mercenaria spp.), a common constituent in the ring matrix. To accurately assess season of death for quahog clams, I gathered a modern comparative clam collection from St. Augustine during every month in 2010. It appears that the maximum acceptable distance between the modern collection and archaeological site in question lies somewhere between 45-80 km. Based on the present results, the maximum acceptable distance may be somewhere around 70 km, but this remains to be tested. This research demonstrates that Guana occupants gathered clams during the winter and spring. Although clam gathering occurred during half of the year, I have proposed that Guana occupants likely remained at the site throughout the year based on seasonality studies at other Late Archaic shell rings. Clam seasonality varied slightly throughout the ring deposit, and may indicate differences in clam use by household groups. Mean clam age and size at Guana declined considerably over time. This suggests that Guana occupants relied heavily on quahog clams and intensively exploited nearby clam beds. Clam collection during the cooler months of winter and spring has been identified at most sites in northeast Florida and throughout the Georgia Bight. Often, clams were gathered exclusively during the cooler months, or they were gathered more intensively during this time. I have proposed that this pattern of cool-weather collection is an adaptation to maximize the returns of gathering clams. Based on my observations while assembling the modern comparative clam collection, clams create small holes in the sand, called keyholes, during cool weather. These keyholes mark the location of a clam, which reduces search time and makes clams less costly to procure. This means that clams are less costly to collect during the cooler months of winter and spring, the seasons during which most clam collection occurred in northeast Florida and throughout the Georgia Bight. This adaptation is likely the cause for the seasonal focus on clam gathering, despite continued occupation at many sites in the Georgia Bight.
Download or read book The Limits of Settlement Growth written by Roland Fletcher and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995-09-29 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this study Roland Fletcher argues that the built environment becomes a constraint on the long-term development of a settlement. It is costly to move settlements, or to demolish and rebuild from scratch, so the initial layout and buildings, and the forms of communication that result, may come to shackle further development and also to place constraints on social and political change. Using this theoretical framework, Dr Fletcher reviews worldwide settlement growth over the past 15,000 years, and concludes with a major discussion of the great transformations of human settlements - from mobile to sedentary, sedentary to urban, and urban to industrial. This book is an ambitious contribution to archaeological theory, and the questions it raises also have implications for the future of urban settlement.
Download or read book The Archaeologist s Laboratory written by E.B. Banning and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-04-11 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text reviews the theory, concepts, and basic methods involved in archaeological analysis with the aim of familiarizing both students and professionals with its underlying principles. Topics covered include the nature and presentation of data; database and research design; sampling and quantification; analyzing lithics, pottery, faunal, and botanical remains; interpreting dates; and archaeological illustration. A glossary of key terms completes the book.
Download or read book Case Studies in Environmental Archaeology written by Elizabeth Reitz and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-12-10 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book highlights studies addressing significant anthropological issues in the Americas from the perspective of environmental archaeology. The book uses case studies to resolve questions related to human behavior in the past rather than to demonstrate the application of methods. Each chapter is an original or revised work by an internationally-recognized scientist. This second edition is based on the 1996 book of the same title. The editors have invited back a number of contributors from the first edition to revise and update their chapter. New studies are included in order to cover recent developments in the field or additional pertinent topics.
Download or read book Foraging and Farming written by David R. Harris and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-30 with total page 766 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is one of a series of more than 20 volumes resulting from the World Archaeological Congress, September 1986, attempting to bring together not only archaeologists and anthropologists from many parts of the world, as well as academics from contingent disciplines, but also non-academics from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. This volume develops a new approach to plant exploitation and early agriculture in a worldwide comparative context. It modifies the conceptual dichotomy between "hunter-gatherers" and "farmers", viewing human exploitation of plant resources as a global evolutionary process which incorporated the beginnings of cultivation and crop domestication. The studies throughout the book come from a worldwide range of geographical contexts, from the Andes to China and from Australia to the Upper Mid-West of North America. This work is of interest to anthropologists, archaeologists, botanists and geographers. Originally published 1989.
Download or read book Between Contacts and Colonies written by Cameron B. Wesson and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2002-10-23 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays brings together diverse approaches to the analysis of Native American culture in the protohistoric period For most Native American peoples of the Southeast, almost two centuries passed between first contact with European explorers in the 16th century and colonization by whites in the 18th century—a temporal span commonly referred to as the Protohistoric period. A recent flurry of interest in this period by archaeologists armed with an improved understanding of the complexity of culture contact situations and important new theoretical paradigms has illuminated a formerly dark time frame. This volume pulls together the current work of archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists to demonstrate a diversity of approaches to studying protohistory. Contributors address different aspects of political economy, cultural warfare, architecture, sedentism, subsistence, foods, prestige goods, disease, and trade. From examination of early documents by René Laudonnière and William Bartram to a study of burial goods distribution patterns; and from an analysis of Caddoan research in Arkansas and Louisiana to an interesting comparison of Apalachee and Powhatan elites, this volume ranges broadly in subject matter. What emerges is a tantalizingly clear view of the protohistoric period in North America.
Download or read book Archaeology of Food written by Karen Bescherer Metheny and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-08-07 with total page 635 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are the origins of agriculture? In what ways have technological advances related to food affected human development? How have food and foodways been used to create identity, communicate meaning, and organize society? In this highly readable, illustrated volume, archaeologists and other scholars from across the globe explore these questions and more. The Archaeology of Food offers more than 250 entries spanning geographic and temporal contexts and features recent discoveries alongside the results of decades of research. The contributors provide overviews of current knowledge and theoretical perspectives, raise key questions, and delve into myriad scientific, archaeological, and material analyses to add depth to our understanding of food. The encyclopedia serves as a reference for scholars and students in archaeology, food studies, and related disciplines, as well as fascinating reading for culinary historians, food writers, and food and archaeology enthusiasts.
Download or read book Pursuing Past Seasons written by Aaron Jonas Stutz and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 614 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Foundations of Anasazi Culture written by Paul F. Reed and published by University of Utah Press. This book was released on 2002-08-29 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This major synthesis of work explores new evidence gathered at Basketmaker III sites on the Colorado Plateau in search of further understanding of Anasazi development. Since the 1960s, large-scale cultural resource management projects have revealed the former presence of Anasazi within the entire northern Southwest. These discoveries have resulted in a greatly expanded view of the BMIII period (A.D. 550-750) which immediately proceeds the Pueblo phase. Particularly noteworthy are finding of Basketmaker remains under those of later periods and in sites with open settings, as opposed to the more classic Basketmaker cave and rock shelter sites. Foundations of Anasazi Culture explores this new evidence in search of further understanding of Anasazi development. Several chapters address the BMII-BMIII transition, including the initial production and use of pottery, greater reliance on agriculture, and the construction of increasingly elaborate structures. Other chapters move beyond the transitional period to discuss key elements of the Anasazi lifestyle, including the use of gray-,red-, and white-ware ceramics, pit structures, storage cists, surface rooms, full dependence on agriculture, and varying degrees of social specialization and differentiation. A number of contributions address one or more of these issues as they occur at specific sites. Other contributors consider the material culture of the period in terms of common elements in architecture, ceramics, lithic technology, and decorative media. This work on BMIII sites on the Colorado Plateau will be useful to anyone with an interest in the earliest days of Anasazi civilization.
Download or read book The Cambridge World Prehistory written by Colin Renfrew and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-06-09 with total page 5256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cambridge World Prehistory provides a systematic and authoritative examination of the prehistory of every region around the world from the early days of human origins in Africa two million years ago to the beginnings of written history, which in some areas started only two centuries ago. Written by a team of leading international scholars, the volumes include both traditional topics and cutting-edge approaches, such as archaeolinguistics and molecular genetics, and examine the essential questions of human development around the world. The volumes are organised geographically, exploring the evolution of hominins and their expansion from Africa, as well as the formation of states and development in each region of different technologies such as seafaring, metallurgy and food production. The Cambridge World Prehistory reveals a rich and complex history of the world. It will be an invaluable resource for any student or scholar of archaeology and related disciplines looking to research a particular topic, tradition, region or period within prehistory.
Download or read book Long on the Tooth written by Christopher W. Schmidt and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2020-11-21 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long 'on' the Tooth: Dental Evidence of Diet addresses human dental macroscopic and microscopic wear, as well as dental disease, as indicators of diet. The book focuses primarily on 350 pre-contact humans from North America dating from approximately 5,500 to 600 years ago. These populations had subsistence strategies ranging from terrestrial foraging to intensive maize agriculture. The study makes intra- and intergroup comparisons to elucidate dietary nuances that are largely beyond the reach of other means of dietary reconstruction. Finally, the book discusses the importance of using multiple dietary indicators in unison in order to provide paleodietary insights. Includes state-of-the-art dental microwear texture data Focuses on populations largely overlooked in archaeological and dental anthropology volumes Offers the first dental anthropology book to integrate dental pathology and dental microwear texture analysis
Download or read book Pottery and People written by James M. Skibo and published by University of Utah Press. This book was released on 1999-01-14 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume emphasizes the complex interactions between ceramic containers and people in past and present contexts. Pottery, once it appears in the archaeological record, is one of the most routinely recovered artifacts. It is made frequently, broken often, and comes in endless varieties according to economic and social requirements. Moreover, even in shreds ceramics can last almost forever, providing important clues about past human behavior. The contributors to this volume, all leaders in ceramic research, probe the relationship between humans and ceramics. Here they offer new discoveries obtained through traditional lines of inquiry, demonstrate methodological breakthroughs, and expose innovative new areas for research. Among the topics covered in this volume are the age at which children begin learning pottery making; the origins of pottery in the Southwest U.S., Mesoamerica, and Greece; vessel production and standardization; vessel size and food consumption patterns; the relationship between pottery style and meaning; and the role pottery and other material culture plays in communication. Pottery and People provides a cross-section of the state of the art, emphasizing the complete interactions between ceramic containers and people in past and present contexts. This is a milestone volume useful to anyone interested in the connections between pots and people.
Download or read book Mummies and Mortuary Monuments written by William H. Isbell and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-07-05 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since prehistoric times, Andean societies have been organized around the ayllu, a grouping of real or ceremonial kinspeople who share labor, resources, and ritual obligations. Many Andean scholars believe that the ayllu is as ancient as Andean culture itself, possibly dating back as far as 6000 B.C., and that it arose to alleviate the hardships of farming in the mountainous Andean environment. In this boldly revisionist book, however, William Isbell persuasively argues that the ayllu developed during the latter half of the Early Intermediate Period (around A.D. 200) as a means of resistance to the process of state formation. Drawing on archaeological evidence, as well as records of Inca life taken from the chroniclers, Isbell asserts that prehistoric ayllus were organized around the veneration of deceased ancestors, whose mummified bodies were housed in open sepulchers, or challups, where they could be visited by descendants seeking approval and favors. By charting the temporal and spatial distribution of chullpa ruins, Isbell offers a convincing new explanation of where, when, and why the ayllu developed.