The Evolution of Complex Hunter-Gatherers: Archaeological Evidence from the North Pacific (Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology) - Hardcover

Fitzhugh, Ben

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 030647753X ISBN 13: 9780306477539

Publisher: Springer, 2003

Synopsis

In 1987, I had the good fortune to join in the excavation of a phenomenal archae­ ological site on the western coast of Kodiak Island, in Alaska. The New Karluk site (a. k. a. , "Karluk One") was perched on the edge of the small village of Karluk at the mouth of the river of the same name, once one of the most productive salmon rivers in the North Pacific. I had just completed my sophomore year of college, and under the direction of Richard Jordan, I enthusiastically joined sev­ eral other students in the Kodiak Archaeology Projects New Karluk excavation. I had participated in my father's archaeological research in Eastern Canada since early childhood, but the Karluk dig was unlike any archaeology I had experienced before. For three months, we peeled back layers of grass, wood, and earth floors separated by remnants of ancient sod roofs. Due to the unusual preservation and richness of the site, at every tum we uncovered perishable items such as bent-wood bowls, masks, dolls, puffin-beak rattles, grass baskets, fragments of fiber netting, locks of hair, and food waste. Preservation was so excellent, in fact, that we often exposed grass blades still green after hundreds of years, which once exposed to air would tum brown before our eyes.

About this title

Review

From the reviews:

"Fitzhugh uses a synthesis of behavioural ecology and processual archaeology to explain the emergence of cultural complexity in his study area a ] . Fitzhugha (TM)s a ] monograph is a welcome counterpoint to long established arguments over cultural complexity among hunter-gatherers. It is also an excellent example of full publication of an important field project in a timely and thorough fashion. a ] This sophisticated and well constructed book is an important, theoretically sophisticated stepping stone along the way. a ] his study is exemplary." (B.M. Fagan, www.PalArch.nl, 2005)

Synopsis

This book makes a contribution to the developing field of complex hunter-gatherer studies with an archaeological analysis of the development of one such group. This book examines the evolution of complex hunter-gatherers on the North Pacific coast of Alaska. It strives to account for the dynamics and processes that transformed a population from low density, disaggregated, relatively mobile, and relatively egalitarian organizations into the demographically dense, sedentary, aggregated, militaristic, and ranked/stratified populations around the North Pacific by the time of ethnographic contact. To do so, this book examines seven thousand years of archaeological history on the Kodiak Archipelago - a region that 250 years ago was part of a broader phenomenon of complex hunter-gatherers ringing the North American Pacific Northwest Coast from California to the Aleutian Islands. This is one of the first books available to examine in depth the social evolution of a specific complex hunter-gatherer tradition on the North Pacific Rim.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 030647753X
• ISBN 13: 9780306477539
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 347