Cultural Ecology and Ecological Dynamics of the Ceramic Period in Southwestern Manitoba

Abstract

A new research paradigm—the Co-Influence Sphere Model—is developed and applied to the archaeological record to account for the variability in prehistoric ceramics of Southwestern Manitoba. The Co-Influence Sphere Model emphasis the co-existence, interaction, and territorial overlapping of groups in the prehistoric and early historic periods

The model requires an evaluation of the seasonally fluctuating resource potential across the Plains, ‘Aspen Parkland, and Boreal Forest; the mobility and multiple biome utilization of historic groups; and the interaction of historic groups through formalized trade networks, conflict, and sharing of similar resources. The earlier emphasis on chronology and mutually exclusive home territories of historic groups is replaced by a more realistic and dynamic model of groups with core, secondary, and tertiary subsistencesettlement areas in which groups interact to varying degrees

For Southwestern Manitoba, the earlier Chronological Model (with one identifiable phase and one historic tribe per period and area) is replaced by a complicated record of four complexes during the Middle Woodland Stage, nine complexes during the Late Woodland Stage, and possibly 15 different ethnic groups in the protohistoric and early historic periods Furthermore, there is a shift in interrelationships between territorially overlapping occupants from the Boreal Forest and Plains with the advent of the Late Woodland Stage that is accompanied by the development of horticultural villages, the growth and fission of human populations, and symbiotic relationships between horticulturalists and hunters.

Use of the dynamic Co-Influence Sphere Model requires a shift away from defining complexes and seeking causal relationships or processes within a small research region. The environmental limitations, cultural history, and cultural processes of any region, and particularly a region like Southwestern Manitoba (which partly straddles an ecotone) can be determined only by an exhaustive study of fluctuating resources, ethnohistory, archaeological history, and variation in subsistence-settlement patterns beyond the region. In order to apply the Co-Influence Sphere Model to Southwestern Manitoba, local data have been related to developments in the Boreal Forest, Upper Great Lakes, Upper Mississippi, and Northern Plains. Relationships are determined by assessing regions and areas beyond the local research universe, rather than attempting to discover processes on the basis of limited local data.