Population growth,climatic cooling,and the development of collector strategies on the Southern Plateau,western North America

A change in human adaptations on the Southern Plateau during the fourth millennium B.P offers the opportunity to investigate the process by which immediate-consumption strategies are replaced by delayed consumption strategies among hunter-gatherers. Assemblage structure and settlement pattern are used to infer the nature of resource acquisition strategies between 2000 and 6000 radiocarbon years B.P., and the results are compared with a proxy record of population and a detailed reconstruction of terrestrial and riverine paleoenvironments. Results show that a strategy of mobile and later occasionally sedentary foraging with little use of storage technology persisted until as late as 3500 B.P and was abruptly and without detectable gradation replaced by a strictly scheduled, semisedentary, logistically organized, storage-dependent collector strategy. The change took place at a time of depressed population and 400 years after a period of climatic cooling had begun, thus eliminating both demographic pressure and environmental determinism as explanations. The evidence could be explained by prolonged selective pressure of an increasingly seasonal environment acting on successively attempted behavioral variants, but the widespread rise of collector-like strategies throughout the west at about the same time leaves open the question of exogenous development and highlights the importance of climatic change.     

Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Population Trends in Northeastern North America

Abstract

The Seneca are an original member of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy and one of several Northern Iroquoian societies that inhabited northeastern North America. This research explores their population history during the 16th and 17th centuries. Previous studies of Northern Iroquoian populations identified population increase until contact with Europeans, no evidence of pre-contact diseases, and drastic depopulation resulting from interaction with European societies. Similar patterns were expected in this research. Combining archaeological settlement data collected with non- and minimally invasive survey techniques and ethnohistorical information, this article estimates the population trends of the Seneca. The results show a highly complex population history that includes pre-contact population losses, in- and out-migration episodes, significant losses from Old World diseases, and rapid population recovery. The field methods employed here may have wider applicability for the demographic archaeology of other similarly adapted cultures.     

Race and Gender in the United States of America

Books reviewed in this article: Nell Irvin Painter, Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol Ann D. Gordon (ed.), The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, vol. 1, In the School of Anti‐Slavery 1840‐1866 Ann D. Gordon with Bettye Collier‐Thomas, John H. Bracey, ArleneVoski Avakian and Joyce Avrech Berkman (eds), African AmericanWomen and the Vote 1837‐1965     

Risky Geographies: Teens,gender, and rural landscape in North America

Young Vermonters living along the Canadian border experience cultural, spatial and material marginalisation, as well as historically high rates of death due to alcohol‐related motor vehicle accidents. This research examines the relationship between teens' place in society, their material geographies in a rural setting, and the strategies they employ to create social opportunities and produce ‘cultural gateways’. As active cultural producers, young people, especially older boys, are successful in building socio‐spatial networks that extend beyond their local area, across the US–Canada border, and into Quebec bars. The research reveals that teens live in a highly gendered social environment, one that encourages risk‐taking for boys and closes down social opportunities for girls. This study opens up new directions for further research into the social and environmental conditions under which North American teens craft their lives in rural places.     

Werra Ware in Britain,Ireland and North America

Abstract

Werra slipware is a high-quality tableware, made in the Werra valley of northern Germany during the period c. 1570–1630. The history of the study of this ware is described. Its occurrence on 175 sites in Britain and Ireland, and 13 in North America, is documented and discussed. The market for this ware was very largely coastal and urban. In some instances its use may be related to communities of Strangers. The dating, vessel forms and decoration of this ware are also considered.