Imagining the cultural landscapes of Paleoindians

Abstract

Archaeologists commonly use the geographic patterning of sourced artifacts to understand how prehistoric cultures used their landscapes, yet exactly what this patterning indicates remains unclear. The Paleoindian literature reflects a tendency to assume that toolstone conveyance reflects direct acquisition (i.e., mobility) motivated by subsistence and technological concerns, rather than acquisition (i.e., exchange) motivated by social concerns. This tendency demonstrates a willingness on the part of many archaeologists to imagine Paleoindians organized on a physical landscape defined by the location of important material resources (e.g., food, water, stone), but a hesitancy to imagine Paleoindians organized on a social landscape defined by the location of other people. Yet the challenge of actually distinguishing between mobility and exchange persists. Here, I offer some ideas that might help us make headway on the linkage problem we confront when attempting to infer mode of acquisition from patterns of toolstone conveyance, focusing on the North American Great Basin. I imagine a Paleoindian cultural landscape defined, not just by the distribution of food and non-food resources, but also other people, to propose that mobility and exchange both contributed to the patterns of toolstone conveyance we see, perhaps operating at different scales in relation to subsistence, technological, and social motivations.