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The remains of hunter-gatherer groups are the most commonly discovered archaeological resources in the world, and their study constitutes much of the archaeological research done in North America. In spite of paradigm-shifting discoveries elsewhere in the world that may indicate that hunter-gatherer societies were more complex than simple remnants of a prehistoric past, North American archaeology by and large hasn’t embraced these theories, instead maintaining its general neoevolutionary track. This book will change that. Combining the latest empirical studies of archaeological practice with the latest conceptual tools of anthropological and historical theory, this volume seeks to set a ne...
Using archaeology as a tool for understanding long-term ecological and climatic change, this volume synthesizes current knowledge about the ways Native Americans interacted with their environments along the Atlantic Coast of North America over the past 10,000 years. Leading scholars discuss how the region’s indigenous peoples grappled with significant changes to shorelines and estuaries, from sea level rise to shifting plant and animal distributions to European settlement and urbanization. Together, they provide a valuable perspective spanning millennia on the diverse marine and nearshore ecosystems of the entire Eastern Seaboard—the icy waters of Newfoundland and the Gulf of Maine, the ...
The supposed extinction of the Indigenous Beothuk people of Newfoundland in the first half of the nineteenth century is a foundational moment in Canadian history. In Tracing Ochre, Fiona Polack and a diverse group of contributors interrogate and expand upon changing perceptions of the Beothuk.
Broadening our understanding of southeastern hunter-gatherers who lived between 4600 and 3500 BP, Zackary Gilmore presents evidence that the Late Archaic community of Silver Glen--one of Florida’s most elaborate shell mound complexes--integrated people and places from throughout Florida by staging large-scale feasts and other public events. Gilmore analyzes the composition and style of pottery at the site, revealing that many of the large, elaborately decorated vessels from the shell mounds were imports with nonlocal origins. His findings indicate that the people of Silver Glen frequently hosted large-scale gatherings that helped to create a sense of community among culturally diverse groups with homelands separated by hundreds of kilometers. The history of Florida’s Late Archaic hunter-gatherers is shown here to be much more dynamic than traditionally thought.
A sweeping overview of how and what humans have eaten in their long history as a species The Story of Food in the Human Past: How What We Ate Made Us Who We Are uses case studies from recent archaeological research to tell the story of food in human prehistory. Beginning with the earliest members of our genus, Robyn E. Cutright investigates the role of food in shaping who we are as humans during the emergence of modern Homo sapiens and through major transitions in human prehistory such as the development of agriculture and the emergence of complex societies. This fascinating study begins with a discussion of how food shaped humans in evolutionary terms by examining what makes human eating un...
The Far Northeast: 3000 BP to Contact is the first volume to synthesize archaeological research from across Atlantic Canada and northern New England for the period spanning from 3000 years ago to European contact. Recently, notions of the “Woodland period” in the broader Northeast have drawn scrutiny from experts due to increasing awareness that its hallmarks—such as horticulture, village formation, mortuary ceremonialism, and the advent of various technologies—appear to be less synchronous than once thought. By paying particular attention to the Far Northeast and its unique (yet sometimes marginal) position in Woodland discourse, this work offers a much-needed in-depth look at one of the best-documented cases of hunter-gatherer persistence and adaptation at the eve of European contact. Penned by academic, government, and cultural-resource-management archaeologists, the seventeen chapters in The Far Northeast: 3000 BP to Contact draw on decades of research in considering this period, both in terms of variability within the region, and integration with broader cultural patterns in the Northeast and beyond. Published in English.
A Prehistory of North America covers the ever-evolving understanding of the prehistory of North America, from its initial colonization, through the development of complex societies, and up to contact with Europeans. This book is the most up-to-date treatment of the prehistory of North America. In addition, it is organized by culture area in order to serve as a companion volume to “An Introduction to Native North America.” It also includes an extensive bibliography to facilitate research by both students and professionals.
Large accumulations of ancient shells on coastlines and riverbanks were long considered the result of garbage disposal during repeated food gatherings by early inhabitants of the southeastern United States. In this volume, Asa R. Randall presents the first new theoretical framework for examining such middens since Ripley Bullen’s seminal work sixty years ago. He convincingly posits that these ancient “garbage dumps” were actually burial mounds, ceremonial gathering places, and often habitation spaces central to the histories and social geography of the hunter-gatherer societies who built them. Synthesizing more than 150 years of shell mound investigations and modern remote sensing data...
Unlike extant texts, this textbook treats pre-Columbian Native Americans as history makers who yet matter in our contemporary world.
This volume explores how native peoples of the Southeastern United States cooperated to form large and permanent early villages, using the site of Crystal River on Florida's Gulf Coast as a case study. Crystal River was once among the most celebrated sites of the Woodland period (ca. 1000 B.C. to A.D. 1000), consisting of ten mounds and large numbers of diverse artifacts from the Hopewell culture. But a lack of research using contemporary methods at this site and nearby Roberts Island limited a full understanding of what these sites could tell scholars. Thomas Pluckhahn and Victor Thompson reanalyze previous excavations and conduct new field investigations to tell the whole story of Crystal ...