Prehistoric Pile Dwellers within an Emergent Ecosystem: An Archaeological Case of Hunters and Gatherers at the Mouth of the Savannah River during the Mid-Holocene

Evidence of a pile-dwelling community and seral environmental conditions during the late Mid-Holocene (ca 4,000–3,000 years b.p.) is explored through archaeological data and paleoecological information from the Bilbo Site at the mouth of the Savannah River along the Georgia coast, U.S.A. It is argued that pile dwellings were a central feature of the cultural adaptive system, allowing settlements to be located in wetlands that provided optimal access to the evolving food resources of multiple, dynamic environments. It also is suggested that the adaptive strategy included residential stability and a more complex organizational structure than that exhibited by modern hunter-gatherers living in marginal environments. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Hunters and Gatherers in the Modern World: Conflict, Resistance and Self-Determination

Hunters and Gatherers in the Modern World: Conflict, Resistance and Self-Determination. Peter P. Schweitzer. Megan Biesele. and Robert K. Hitchcock. eds. New York: Berghahn Books, 2000.498 pp.     

The Adaptive Technology of the Prehistoric Inhabitants of Southwest Texas

Abstract

A model of the middle Archaic adaptations in the lower Pecos River area of southwest Texas is presented. Working within excellent temporal and spatial frameworks and using the results of ethnobotanical, ethnozoological and dietary studies, the adaptive efficiency of the ancient technology is examined. A basically unchanged adaptive continuum prevailed in the area for approximately 8000 years. The conservatism and longevity seen in the adaptation centered significantly on the early and conti11ued exploitation of perennial desert succulents such as sotol, lechuguilla and yucca both as food and raw material sources.     

A Model of Prehistoric Adaptation in Northern Texas

Abstract

This paper focuses upon the nature of prehistoric adaptation to the prairies, cross timbers and rolling plains of northern Texas. Adaptation to both the natural and cultural environment of the region is considered through the presentation of a diachronic model. This model emphasizes the economic, demographic and social aspects of adaptation to northern Texas from the earliest human occupation through the end of the prehistoric period.     

Genetic and Cultural Kinship among the Lamaleran Whale Hunters

The human ability to form large, coordinated groups is among our most impressive social adaptations. Larger groups facilitate synergistic economies of scale for cooperative breeding, such economic tasks as group hunting, and success in conflict with other groups. In many organisms, genetic relationships provide the structure for sociality to evolve via the process of kin selection, and this is the case, to a certain extent, for humans. But assortment by genetic affiliation is not the only mechanism that can bring people together. Affinity based on symbolically mediated and socially constructed identity, or cultural kinship, structures much of human ultrasociality. This paper examines how genetic kinship and two kinds of cultural kinship--affinal kinship and descent--structure the network of cooperating whale hunters in the village of Lamalera, Indonesia. Social network analyses show that each mechanism of assortment produces characteristic networks of different sizes, each more or less conducive to the task of hunting whales. Assortment via close genetic kin relationships (r?=?0.5) produces a smaller, denser network. Assortment via less-close kin relations (r?=?0.125) produces a larger but less dense network. Affinal networks are small and diffuse; lineage networks are larger, discrete, and very dense. The roles that genetic and cultural kinship play for structuring human sociality is discussed in the context of these results.     

Resource Management and Locational Strategies of Certain Prehistoric Sites in Central Texas

Abstract

An analysis of three Archaic Nee-American Stage sites along the San Gabriel River of central Texas was performed in order to relate management of local resources to choice of site location. This salvagefinanced investigation led to the conclusion” that both midden and campsites were located near but not necessarily on the source of a few highly valued products to the detriment of all other less desirable and more distant resources.     

Prehistoric Cultural Ecology and Evolution: Insights from Southern Jordan

Prehistoric Cultural Ecology and Evolution: Insights from Southern Jordan. Donald O. Henry. New York: Plenum Press, 1995. 466 pp.     

An Ethnography of the Neolithic: Early Prehistoric Societies in Southern Scandinavia

An Ethnography of the Neolithic: Early Prehistoric Societies in Southern Scandinavia. Christopher Tilley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 360 pp.     

a Terrace Habitat and Late Prehistoric Settlement in North-Central Texas: Pollen And Geological Evidence

Abstract

Ecologically oriented studies in archaeology tend to suffer from over-generalized models. Pollen and geological data from the Cobb-Poole site in northcentral Texas illustrate how reconstruction of specific habitats can beof use in building testable ecological models. New evidence is presented that suggests failure to recover prehistoric pollen from alkaline soils in the Southern Plains is thli! result of inappropriate laboratory methods