Hunter-Gatherer Variability: Developing Models for the Northern Coasts

Peter Rowley-Conwy,Stephanie Piper

doi:10.14430/arctic4623

Abstract

Hunter-fisher-gatherer (HFG) variability has received a lot of attention. We review the key developments in the theories of variability, which have usually resulted in binary classifications. We argue that a range of variation based on the degree of territorial ownership is preferable to these classifications. Hunter-fisher-gatherers of the world’s northern coasts have only been partially explored in this way with regard to variability. A major reason for this is that such coastal groups use boats, so normative models of inland terrestrial foraging are not immediately applicable. We suggest that the Saxe-Goldstein hypothesis, the cautious linking of territoriality to funerary behaviour, may be a useful avenue to explore. Much work has been done by scholars of the northern coasts on boats and maritime transport, and some conclusions could be extrapolated to regions farther south.

Highlights

The socioeconomic organization of hunter-fisher-gatherer (HFG) peoples varies greatly between different groups
We will argue that the implications of HFG variability on the northern coasts have not been fully integrated into more general discourses on HFGs elsewhere
If the late glacial hunters were adept in the use of boats and were not just pedestrian HFGs, this would explain why they were able to colonize the skerries of the West Swedish coast at that time (Schmitt and Svedhage, 2016). This discussion of the HFGs of the northern coasts has identified some ways in which these people have been cast as different from many of the groups upon which our standard models are based

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The socioeconomic organization of hunter-fisher-gatherer (HFG) peoples varies greatly between different groups. Resources occur in predictable bursts that can be harvested and stored (Northwest Coast salmon runs), or in hidden locations whose whereabouts are preserved in ritual knowledge (Australian water) In these areas, property-owning lineages control parts of the land (Layton, 1986, 2005). Storage of the productive and reliable salmon is vital for winter survival, but marine resources are productive enough during summer for lineage-based territoriality to be relaxed in this season (the Twana are in this group). Richardson’s scheme is very effective in calibrating social structure against resource reliability and productivity It provides a good starting point for the section, in which we consider HFG variability in the archaeological record. Territorial ownership by lineages has emerged as the most crucial social aspect of Delayed Return groups and is the major feature that distinguishes them from Collectors. There are two at Ballybrack, Labrador, dating from the earliest

Findings

21 D 1 2 cairn I 3

CONCLUSIONS