Monongahela Subsistence-settlement Change?

Abstract

The Late Prehistoric (c. A.D. 1050/1100–1635) Monongahela tradition of southwestern Pennsylvania and portions of adjoining states has come to be associated with specific subsistence-settlement traits. These include a heavy dependence on maize-based agriculture, large percentages of villages in upland locales, and use of semisubterranean storage facilities. In the traditional approach, that entails the construction of a series of sequential time periods, changes in subsistence and settlement traits are most often interpreted to have occurred at the boundaries of the time periods. These periods are defined on the basis of pottery style changes and the addition of European artifacts. An accumulation of data now allows for statistical analysis of posited changes in Monongahela tradition settlement and subsistence traits. Results of this study do not support the proposed subsistence and settlement pattern shifts at time period boundaries. Rather, the results support the position of continuous variation in the settlement and subsistence traits through the entire sequence with no evidence of regional uniformity.     

Canadian Northern Settlements: Top-down and Bottom-up Influences

The objective of this paper is to examine the evolution of settlement in northern Canada from the viewpoint of the paradigms of bottom-up or top-down development, the former being community driven and the latter government initiated. Following a review of the stages of settlement evolution and the major influences on them including the airplane and the Second World War, the Scone Report's characterization of settlements as developed or underdeveloped is presented. Much of the initial settlement of the North was top-down involving government or private capital from outside the region because it was a frontier devoid of settlement. Subsequently the building blocks of bottom-up development emerged. The federal government's devolution of power to the NWT Council in Yellowknife and the decentralization of a civil service from Ottawa was an important prerequisite for local government. This process has been strengthened recently by comprehensive settlements with aboriginal groups providing another building block in the form of land, hunting and mineral rights, and cash compensation for the extinguishment of aboriginal rights. A third building block for bottom-up development lies in the mixed economy which has emerged encompassing employment and business income from, for example, regional development corporations and co-operatives, transfers from Ottawa, country food, and the use of traditional skills of hunting, fishing and trapping. The adaptation of these skills to tourism, prospecting, guiding as well as aboriginal participation in oil and gas development and diamond mining indicate that such community involvement with a modern economy will outlast specific non-renewable resource use.     

Italian settlement in Sydney, 1920–78

Italian settlement in Sydney has been distinguished by its poly-nuclear pattern of concentration and also widespread dispersion. The classical invasion-succession and concentric models of population movement have been less applicable to the process of settlement growth and change of the Italians for several reasons: first, the importance of chain migration and the resultant ‘urban village’ clusters and identifications; second, the possibility of owner occupancy of housing in ethnic concentrations through the conversion of the inner city rental market to an o wner occupier market of individual dwellings, so that concentrations could survive; and third, the tendency, despite substantial residential mobility within the first generation, for many longer-established residents to stay behind in the concentrations—the reverse of the classical models. The decision to stay or move is in part a matter of choice, but language constraints have been influential. Many recent arrivals and younger persons have by-passed the residential concentrations and their institutional structures because of better education and skills and because they could join relatives who had moved out, so that chain migration ultimately acted to disperse settlers after originally concentrating them.     

Cranioskeletal Size Variation in San Francisco Bay Prehistory: Relation to Calcium Deficit in the Reconstructed High-seafoods Diet and Demographic Stress

An osteometric–statistical study of residual rickets (RR) skeletal plasticity has been made of a time-ordered sequence of 11 series of adult skeleton sets (n=251) from shellmound sites around San Francisco Bay (the Bay) spanning the three archaeological horizons of Central California Indian prehistory in this region: Early (EH), Middle (MH) and Late (LH). To control for major differences of subsistence ecology and ethnolinguistic affiliation, the Bay sequence was further subdivided into four subregions: East (EB, Costanoan), South (SB, Costanoan, high acorns), West (WB, Costanoan, low acorns) and Northwest (NWB, Coast Miwok). In the eight EB series, a non-linear downward trend in cranioskeletal size was observed between EH and LH2, coinciding with a modest upward trend in the RR-15B score. To ascertain if food calcium deficit (CADEF) can explain the observed secular decline in cranioskeletal size, the evolving aboriginal Bay archaeodiet—relatively high in marine mammals, birds, fish and calcium-rich mollusks—was reconstructed by the diet grid method: in the three subregions with large stands of oaks (EB, SB, NWB), CADEF rose from negligible in the EH to moderate in the LH, as the subsistence base became more dependent on leached acorn meal for energy. Temporal and areal variation in Bay cranioskeletal size relates mostly to CADEF, demographic stress in females (DS), and the ‘male nutritional advantage interaction co-factor’ (MNAIC), in descending order of importance. This study has also confirmed the existence of the San Francisco Bay Indian physical type.     

Classic Lowland Maya Political Organization: A Review

This paper reviews recent archaeological research concerning Classic Maya lowland political systems (ca. A.D. 250–1000). It focuses specifically on (1) subsistence practices revealed through the analysis of prehistoric climate, available resources, agricultural technologies, and diet; (2) population distribution, density, and size revealed through the analysis of settlement practices and architectural function; (3) social differentiation and interaction revealed through the analysis of burial practices, diet and health, architecture, and production, consumption, and exchange patterns; and (4) ancient Maya political economy (how it was funded) revealed through the analysis of community organization, ritual activities, the Classic Maya collapse, and warfare. It finally ends with a brief discussion of the future of Maya archaeology. A key factor that recurs throughout this review is the noticeable amount of variability that existed—varied resources, subsistence strategies, settlement practices, and social and political systems. An understanding of this variability is the key to appreciate fully the Classic Maya.     

The Woodland Period Occupation of Grand Island

Abstract

The coastal waters surrounding Grand Island, Michigan represent one of the most productive fisheries along the southern shore of Lake Superior. Archaeological investigations of coastal settings like Grand Island have figured prominently in studies of Woodland period (ca. 0–A.D. 1600) subsistence, settlement, and social integration in the Upper Great Lakes. The topic of Woodland subsistence and settlement is not without controversy regarding the timing of technological changes associated with the increased exploitation of the fall fishery. This article provides a summary of Woodland period archaeology on Grand Island with the goal of interpreting the data from within the framework of the Inland Shore Fishery debate. A multiscalar approach is used to look for differences between Initial and Terminal Woodland fishing strategies and address changes in the way Grand Island was socially and economically integrated into the broader context of Woodland period settlement and subsistence systems. The evidence suggests that while Grand Island was occupied and used in a consistent manner throughout the Woodland period, the social and economic significance of the island may have changed with a shift in settlement toward greater access to deepwater settings for the exploitation of fall-spawning fish.     

MATERIAL SYMBOLS AND THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURAL CHANGE

Changes in economic patterns, such as in subsistence practices, settlement organization, and trade, are accompanied by changes in people's view of their world and their place in it. In contexts for which the economic bases and social configurations are fairly well understood, it should be possible to identify and interpret changes in symbolic systems. The case presented involves transformations in the character and decoration of ceramic vessels of the European Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages. This line of inquiry can provide insight into shifts in attitudes and perceptions that came about as the result of newly developing economic and political configurations.     

Bighorn hunting,resource depression,and rock art in the Coso Range,eastern California: a computer simulation model

The extraordinary record of prehistoric rock art depicting tens of thousands of animal images in the Coso Range of eastern California provides an opportunity to study the relationship between aboriginal hunting, forager ecology, bighorn prey population levels, and the production of rock art. We review archaeofaunal evidence that the Coso desert bighorn sheep population was strongly depleted during the Newberry era after 1500 B.C. We discuss the dating of the rock art and show a correlation between bighorn depletion and increased rock art production. These data are consistent with the arrival of Numic foragers ca. A.D. 600 who competed with the Coso Pre-Numics and eventually terminated the Coso rock art tradition. An ecological predator-prey computer simulation of the human populations (Numic and Pre-Numics), the sheep population, and the rock art “population”, demonstrates these proposed interconnections and gives a reasonable fit to the observed rock art production rate.     

The Precontact Iroquoian Occupation of Southern Ontario

Iroquoians become recognizable in the archaeological record of southern Ontario about A.D. 500, with the appearance of Princess Point sites and maize agriculture in the lower Grand River valley. After A.D. 1000, Iroquoians lived in longhouse villages situated in the interior, north of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and the St. Lawrence River. This synthesis of the Iroquoian occupation of southern Ontario prior to European contact focuses on origins, settlement patterns, demography, subsistence, and sociopolitical organization. It highlights the significant contributions to Iroquoian archaeology that have been made by government and private consulting archaeologists over the last two decades.     

Peasant Settlers and the ‘Civilising Mission’ in Russian Turkestan, 1865–1917

This article provides an introduction to one of the lesser-known examples of European settler colonialism, the settlement of European (mainly Russian and Ukrainian) peasants in Southern Central Asia (Turkestan) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It establishes the legal background and demographic impact of peasant settlement, and the role played by the state in organising and encouraging it. It explores official attitudes towards the settlers (which were often very negative), and their relations with the local Kazakh and Kyrgyz population. The article adopts a comparative framework, looking at Turkestan alongside Algeria and Southern Africa, and seeking to establish whether paradigms developed in the study of other settler societies (such as the ‘poor white’) are of any relevance in understanding Slavic peasant settlement in Turkestan. It concludes that there are many close parallels with European settlement in other regions with large indigenous populations, but that racial ideology played a much less important role in the Russian case compared to religious divisions and fears of cultural backsliding. This did not prevent relations between settlers and the ‘native’ population deteriorating markedly in the years before the First World War, resulting in large-scale rebellion in 1916.     

Secular decline in cranioskeletal size over two millennia of interior central California prehistory: Relation to calcium deficit in the reconstructed diet and demographic stress

An osteometric study of residual rickets (RR) skeletal plasticity has been made of a time-ordered sequence of fifteen series of adult skeleton sets (n=359) from the Great Valley of central California (GV), spanning the three archaeological horizons of California Indian prehistory in this region: Early (EH), Middle (MH) and Late (LH). By least-squares linear regression analysis, a clear and continuous downward trend obtained in cranioskeletal size in both sexes, proceeding from EH to LH in the GV sequence, pari passu with a steady upward trend in the RR-15 score. To ascertain if dietary calcium deficit (CADEF), a known cause of active rickets, can explain the observed secular increase in RR, the aboriginal diet was reconstructed by the diet grid method: CADEF was found to rise from borderline in the EH, to moderate in the MH, to severe in the LH, as the subsistence base shifted gradually away from hunted prey, and storable seed foods—mainly leached acorn meal—became the dominant source of energy. Further regression analysis has shown that the secular upward trend in CADEF is highly correlated with the temporal clines of the GV sequence, directly with the RR-15 score, and inversely with cranioskeletal size: in round numbers, one grade of CADEF brings about a loss of 120 cm³ or 4 per cent in partial skeleton volume. Two biocultural influences—demographic stress (DS) in females, and the less common ‘male nutritional advantage interaction co-factor’ (MNAIC)—modulate the primary bone antitrophic CADEF effect: DS enhancing, MNAIC ameliorating.     

Cultural Resource Management and American Archaeology

Cultural resource management (CRM) work accounts for most of the archaeology conducted in the United States. A diverse and somewhat fragmented field, CRM has nonetheless achieved a degree of institutional and organizational maturity. CRM archaeology has produced important contributions to archaeological methodology and has established and refined knowledge of regional cultural-historical sequences and settlement and subsistence patterns. The current florescence of historical archaeology is attributable to CRM. Yet the maintenance of high quality in CRM is a pervasive and enduring problem. Academic institutions need to reestablish alliances with the CRM community. The future viability of CRM archaeology depends on factors both internal and external to the discipline: regulatory and statutory “reform,” agency funding levels, looting and other destructive forces, and Native American and other public involvement.     

试论藏彝走廊独立族群聚居地的文化景观——以白马人为例

白马人是藏缅语族中文化形态独特的少数族群。分布在川甘两省交界地带的白马人聚居地,是一个相对独立的文化地理共同体。白马人聚居地是长江流域海拔较高的人类居住地带,也是我国西部生物-文化多样性两者兼得以保持完好的典型区域之一。本文试以四川省平武县若干白马人村落为研究样本,阐述了诸如村落与自然环境的融洽、乡土民居建筑与自然神崇拜等物质与意识形态文化景观的地域特色。     

Variable Ovicaprid Diet and Faecal Spherulite Production at Amara West,Sudan

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the results of integrated geoarchaeological and archaeobotanical analyses of desiccated and charred ovicaprid dung pellets from the New Kingdom pharaonic settlement of Amara West (Sudan). These analyses reveal diagnostic phytolithic evidence for considerable variations in plant diet amongst the site’s ovicaprid population. These data shed light on aspects of ancient animal husbandry practice, the settlement’s subsistence economy and residents’ exploitation of natural resources. We also observe that specific phytolith types correlate with the presence (and quantity) or absence of calcium carbonate faecal spherulites in analysed dung pellets. This evidence, augmented by experimental analysis of analogous modern plant material, suggests that dietary Ca intake is implicated in faecal spherulite crystallization within the ovicaprid digestive system.     

Challenges to Riverine Planning in Australia

Australia's riverine resources have been statutoralty unrecognised and unprotected and as a consequence seriously degraded by land use practices in many regions since European settlement There is now an urgent need to modify and manage river systems for increasingly complex and diverse water requirements. This is not easy. A framework of important components in a river management system shows the muti-faceted and complex nature of the biophysical and institutional environment     

Social Change in An Urban-Rural Fringe: Marques,Brazil

Communities at the fringe of cities in southeastern Brazil are characterized by rapidly changing social values associated with elements of economic modernization. The economy of the small rural village of Marques, situated near Piracicaba, a city of 500,000 population, has been transformed from one based on local subsistence and cash crop farming to one of diversified urban employment. Migration to the city has been significant. Despite diminished economic output, family and institutional ties have kept many from moving away from Marques and draw former residents back for special occasions.     

The spatial distribution of population in Spain: An anomaly in European perspective

We exploit the GEOSTAT 2011 population grid with a very high 1 km² resolution to document that Spain presents the lowest density of settlements among European countries. Only a small fraction of the Spanish territory is inhabited, particularly in its southern half, which goes hand in hand with a high degree of population concentration. We uncover through standard regression analysis and spatial regression discontinuity that this anomaly cannot be accounted for by adverse geographic and climatic conditions. The second part of the paper takes a historical perspective on Spain's settlement patterns by showing that the spatial distribution of the population has been very persistent in the last two centuries, and that the abnormally low density of settlements with respect to European neighbors was already visible in the 19th century, which indicates that this phenomenon has not emerged recently as a consequence of the transformations associated with industrialization and tertiarization. Using data on ancient sites, we find that Spain did not feature scarcity of settlements in comparison to other countries in premedieval times, suggesting that its current anomalous settlement pattern has not always existed and is, therefore, not intrinsic to its geography.     

明代云南汉族移民定居区的分布与拓展

云南汉族分布区发展最快的时期是明代。明代80余万汉族军事移民大规模进入云南,深入传统的当地民族世居区或边疆地区,建立卫所,定居屯田,促使云南涌现出大量的汉族移民新区,形成相对稳定和独立的汉族社会和汉夷杂居的发展趋势,基本奠定了明清以后直到今天云南各民族分布格局和民族交融的基础,成为明清以来云南边疆开发和社会变迁的重要推动力。     

Prehistory in the northwest tropical Pacific: The Caroline,Mariana, and Marshall Islands

The earliest identified settlement is in the Marianas, dated to about 3500 B.P., while the other islands in the region appear to be settled from about 2000 B.P. onward. The archaeological remains reveal diverse approaches to island living. While Nan Madol and Leluh in the eastern Carolines are major architectural achievements, a discussion of these sites does not detract, for example, from the terrace systems of Palau or the lattestone groups of the southern Marianas. Of equal interest is the settlement of atolls and their recently recognized potential for preservation of stratified deposits. As information allows, each island or group is considered on an individual basis in order to allow for each specific island context to be assessed. This is described within the broader themes of architecture, chronology, environment, material culture, settlement pattern, social organization, and subsistence. In conclusion, the current standing of prehistory in the region is outlined in relation to early settlement, environment, social organization, chronology, settlement pattern studies, portable material culture, subsistence, and atolls. Finally, suggestions for the future are made.