Hunter-Gatherer Ethnoarchaeology

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anthropology 113:178

Fall 2003

 

119 Macbride Hall

 

Thursday 2:30-5:20 pm

 

James G. Enloe

241 Macbride

355-0514

james-enloe@uiowa.edu

 


Syllabus            113:178      Hunter-Gatherer Ethnoarchaeology                              Fall 2003

 

                        119 Macbride Hall                   Thursday 2:30-5:20 pm

 

Professor:         James Enloe                             Departmental Executive Officer: Michael Chibnik

241 Macbride  Hall                                         113A Macbride Hall     335-3506

Office hours:     Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday           1:00-2:30

                        or by appointment: 355-0514 or james-enloe@uiowa.edu

 

            This course is a survey of recent literature which covers changing perspectives in anthropology on the nature of hunter-gatherers, their adaptations, gender roles, social complexity, and their relationship to our understanding of prehistoric hunter-gatherers. Ethnoarchaeology is examined as a methodology and a means of linking modern observations with interpretations of prehistoric behavior and its implications for human evolution.

 

Required text

Kelly, R.L., 1995         The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.

 

Additional readings    Photocopies of book chapters and journal articles are on 2 hour reserve at the main library. All readings are obligatory. You may want to search out the original publications for a better look at photographs, etc.

           

Course Requirements

            This is an upper division and graduate course, which will take the form of a seminar. Students are expected to have read, digested and synthesized all of the readings before coming to class. Attendance at all classes is obligatory, since much of the grade will be based on class participation in seminar discussions. Each student will prepare a short paper that synthesizes, compares and contrasts the readings for each week, to be turned in at the end of each class. Due to the immediate relationship between readings and discussions, no late papers will be accepted. Students will be assigned to present individual readings and to lead class discussion of those readings. Come to class with at least two good, provocative questions on the reading. The number of times during the semester each student will be presenting will depend on the number of students registered and attending the seminar. We will read at least 70 articles or chapters during the semester, so the average will be about seven readings per week.

Students are referred to the Fall 2003 Schedule of Classes for University policy on academic misconduct and student complaints. The University is required by law to make reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities. If this applies to you, you must register with the Office of Student Disability Services (335-1462). They will inform you of your rights and responsibilities. You should also identify yourself as disabled, if the disability is not obvious, to your professor. More details on these topics can be found at the end of this syllabus.


Weekly Topics:                                                                                              Fall 2003

 

Week 1: August 28 - Introduction to Hunters and Gatherers

Week 2: Sept 4- Traditional views of hunter-gatherer social organization

Week 3: September 11 - Optimal Foraging and Evolutionary Ecology

Week 4: Sept 18 - Mobility Patterns and Subsistence Organization

Week 5: Sept 25 - Demography

Week 6: Oct 2 - Woman the Gatherer

Week 7: Oct 9 - Simplicity and Complexity Hunter-Gatherers

Week 8: Oct 16 - Complex Hunter-Gatherers in Prehistory

Week 9: October 23 - Interaction with Neighboring Cultures

Week 10: Oct 30 - The Revisionist Debate

Week 11: November 6 - Updating Current Views on Affluence

Week 12: November 13 - Ethnoarchaeology

Week 13: Nov 20 - Site Structure

Week 14: Nov 27 – Thanksgiving Recess

Week 15: Dec 4 - Faunal Analysis

Week 16: December 11 – Technology

Week 17: Dec 18 –Exam Week: Summary, Review, Evaluations


Readings:

 

Week 1: August 28 - Introduction to Hunters and Gatherers

 

Kelly, R.L.

1995 Ch. 1. Hunter-Gatherers and Anthropology. The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways, pp. 1-37. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.

 

Week 2: September 4 - Traditional views of hunter-gatherer social organization

 

Kelly, R.L.

1995 Ch. 2. Environment, Evolution, and Anthropological Theory. The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways, pp.39-64. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.

 

Binford, L.R.

2001 Ch. 1: “Founder’s effect” and the study of hunter-gatherers. Constructing Frames of Reference: An Analytical Method for Archaeological Theory Building Using hunter-Gatherer and Environmental Data Sets, pp. 9-31. University of California Press, Berkeley.

 

Steward, J.H.

1955 Theory of Culture Change: the Methodology of Multilinear Evolution, Ch. 7: The patrilineal band. pp.122-142, and Ch. 8:The Composite Band, pp. 143-150

 

Lee, R.B., and I. Devore

1968 Problems in the study of hunters and gatherers. In: R.B. Lee and I. DeVore, eds., Man the Hunter, pp. 3-12. Aldine, Chicago.

 

Murdock, G.P.

1968 The current status of the world's hunting and gathering peoples. In: R.B. Lee and I. DeVore, eds., Man the Hunter, pp. 12-20. Aldine, Chicago.

 

Service, E.R.

1971 Primitive Social Organization, Ch. 3: The social organization of bands, pp. 46-98.

 

Barnard, A.

2000 The hunter-gatherer mode of thought. Anales de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Buenos Aires, pp. 7-24. Buenos Aires.

 

Roscoe, P.

2002 The hunters and gatherers of New Guinea. Current Anthropology 43(1):153-162.

 

Week 3: Sept 11 - Optimal Foraging and Evolutionary Ecology

 

Kelly, R.L.

1995 Ch. 3. Foraging and subsistence. The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways, pp. 65-110. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.

 

Smith, E.A., and B. Winterhalder

1981 New Perspectives on Hunter-Gatherer Socioecology. In: Winterhalder, B., and E.A. Smith, eds., Hunter-Gatherer Foraging Strategies: Ethnographic and Archeological Analyses, pp. 1-12. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

 


Winterhalder, B.

1981 Optimal foraging strategies and hunter-gatherer research in anthropology: Theory and models. In: Winterhalder, B., and E.A. Smith, eds., Hunter-Gatherer Foraging Strategies: Ethnographic and Archeological Analyses, pp. 13-35. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

 

Smith, E.A.

1981 The Application of Optimal Foraging Theory to the Analysis of Hunter-Gatherer Group Size. In: Winterhalder, B., and E.A. Smith, eds., Hunter-Gatherer Foraging Strategies: Ethnographic and Archeological Analyses, pp. 36-65. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

 

Wiessner, P.

1980 Risk, reciprocity and social influences on !Kung San economics. In: E. Leacock and R. Lee, eds., Politics and History in Band Societies, pp.61-84. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

 

Kaplan, H., and K. Hill

1985 Food sharing among Ache foragers: Tests of explanatory Hypotheses. Current Anthropology 26(2):223- 246.

 

Bird-David, N.

1990 The giving environment: Another perspective on the economic systems of gatherer-hunters. Current Anthropology 31(2):189-196.

 

Alvard, M.S., and D.A. Nolin

2002 Rousseau’s whale hunt? Coordination among big-game hunters. Current Anthropology 43 (4):533-559.

 

Week 4: September 18 - Mobility Patterns and Subsistence Organization

 

Kelly, R.L.

1995 Ch. 4. Foraging and Mobility and Ch. 5. Sharing, Exchange and Land Tenure. The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways, pp. 111-160, 161-204. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.

 

Binford, L.R.

1980 Willow smoke and dogs' tails: Hunter-gatherer settlement systems and archaeological site formation. American Antiquity 45:(1):4-20.

 

Wiesner, P.

1982 Beyond willow smoke and dogs' tails: A comment on Binford's analysis of hunter-gatherer settlement systems. American Antiquity 47:(1):171-178.

 

Kelly, R.L.

1983 Hunter-gatherer mobility strategies. Journal of Anthropological Research 39(3):277-306.

 

MacDonald, D.H., and B.S. Hewlett

1999 Reproductive interests and forager mobility. Current Anthropology 40(4):501-523.

 

Week 5: Sept 25 - Demography

 

Kelly, R.L.

1995 Ch. 6. Group Size and Reproduction. The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways, pp. 205-259. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.

 

Dunn, F.L.

1968 Epidemiological Factors: Health and Disease in Hunter-Gatherers. In: R.B. Lee and I. DeVore, eds., Man the Hunter, pp. 221-228. Aldine, Chicago.

 


Birdsell, J.B.

1968 Some Predictions for the Pleistocene Based on Equilibrium Systems among Recent Hunter-Gatherers. In: R.B. Lee and I. DeVore, eds., Man the Hunter, pp. 229-240. Aldine, Chicago.

 

Lee, R.B., and I. DeVore, eds.

1968 Discussion, Part V. In: R.B. Lee and I. DeVore, eds., Man the Hunter, pp. 241-249. Aldine, Chicago.

 

Glassow, M.A.

1978 The Concept of Carrying Capacity in the Study of Cultural Process. In: M.B. Schiffer, ed., Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory 1:31-48.

 

Hammel, E.A.

1988 A glimpse into the demography of the Ainu. American Anthropologist 90:25-41.

 

Kent, S., and R.B. Lee

1992 A hemotological study of !Kung Kalahari foragers: An eighteen year comparison. In: P. Stuart-Macadam and S. Kent, eds., Diet, Demography, and Disease: Changing Perspectives on Anemia, pp. 173-200.

 

Week 6: Oct 2 - Woman the Gatherer

 

Kelly, R.L.

1995 Ch. 7. Men, Women and Foraging. The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways, pp. 261-292. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.

 

Lee, R.B.

1968 What Hunters Do for a Living, or, How to Make out on Scarce Resources. In: R.B. Lee and I. DeVore, eds., Man the Hunter, pp. 30-48. Aldine, Chicago.

 

Dahlberg, F.

1981 Introduction. In: F. Dahlberg, ed., Woman the Gatherer, pp. 1-33. Yale University Press, New Haven.

 

Estioko-Griffin, A., and P.B. Griffin

1981 Woman the Hunter. In: F. Dahlberg, ed., Woman the Gatherer, pp. 121-151. Yale University Press, New Haven.

 

O'Connell, J.F., and K. Hawkes

1981 Alyawara Plant Use and Optimal Foraging Theory. In: Winterhalder, B., and E.A. Smith, eds., Hunter-Gatherer Foraging Strategies: Ethnographic and Archeological Analyses, pp. 99-125. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

 

Hawkes, K., J. F. O'Connell and N. G. Blurton Jones
1989. Hardworking Hadza grandmothers. In Comparative Socioecology: The Behavioural Ecology of Humans and Other Mammals, edited by V. Standen & R.A. Foley, pp. 341-366. London: Basil Blackwell

 

Bodenhorn, B.

1990 "I'm not the great hunter, my wife is": Iñupiat and anthropological models of gender. Études/Inuit/Studies 14 (1-2):55-74.

 

O'Connell, J. F., K. Hawkes, and N. G. Blurton Jones
1999 Grandmothering and the evolution of Homo erectus. Journal of Human Evolution 36:461-485.

 

Kaplan, H., K. Hill, J. Lancaster and A.M. Hurtado

2000 A theory of human life history evolution: diet, intelligence and longevity. Evolutionary Anthropology 9 (4):156-185.

 

Noss, Andrew J., and Barry S. Hewlett

2001 The contexts of female hunting in Central Africa. American Anthropologist 103(4):1024-1040.

 

Week 7: Oct 9 - Simplicity and Complexity Modern Hunter-Gatherers

 

Kelly, R.L.

1995 Ch. 8. Egalitarian and Nonegalitarian Hunter-Gatherers. The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter- Gatherer Lifeways, pp. 293-331. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.

 

Testart, A.

1982 The significance of food storage among hunters and gatherers: residence patterns, population densities, and social inequities. Current Anthropology 23:523-537.

 

Suttles, W.P.

1968 Coping with abundance: Subsistence on the Northwest Coast. In: Man the Hunter, ed. by R.B. Lee and I. DeVore, pp. 56-68. Aldine, Chicago.

 

Turnbull, C.M.

1968 The importance of flux in two hunting societies. In Man the Hunter, ed. by R.B. Lee and I. DeVore, pp. 132-137. Aldine, Chicago.

 

Schalk, R.

1982 Land use and organizational complexity among foragers of northwestern North America. In Affluent Foragers, ed. by S. Koyama and D. H. Thomas, pp. 53-75. Senri Ethnological Series No. 9. National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka.

 

Watanabe, H.

1982 Occupational differentiation and social stratification: the case of northern Pacific maritime food- gatherers. Current Anthropology 24 (2):217-219

 

Woodburn, J.

1982 Egalitarian societies. Man 17:431-451.

 

Week 8: Oct 16 - Complex Hunter-Gatherers in Prehistory

 

King, T.F.

1978 Don't that beat the band? Nonegalitarian political organization in prehistoric central California. In Social Archaeology: Beyond Subsistence and Dating, ed. by C.L. Redman, et al., pp. 225-248. Academic Press, New York.

 

Yesner, D.R.

1980 Maritime hunter-gatherers: Ecology and prehistory. Current Anthropology 21 (6):727-750.

 

Rowley-Conwy, P.

1983 Sedentary hunters: the Ertebølle example. In Hunter-Gatherer Economy in Prehistory: A European Perspective, ed. by G. Bailey, pp. 111-126. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

 

Schrirer, C.

1984 Past and Present in Hunter Gatherer Studies, Ch. 1: "Wild surmises on savage thoughts", by C. Shrirer. pp. 1-25.

 

Price, T.D., and J.A. Brown

1985 Prehistoric Hunters and Gatherers: the Emergence of Cultural Complexity, Ch. 1: Aspects of hunter- gatherer complexity. pp. 3-20.

 

Cohen, M.N.

1985 Prehistoric hunter-gatherers: the meaning of social complexity. In Prehistoric Hunters and Gatherers: the Emergence of Cultural Complexity, ed. by T.D. Price and J.A. Brown, pp. 99-119. Academic Press, New York.

 

Mellars, P.A.

1985 The ecological basis of social complexity in the Upper Paleolithic of southwestern France.  In Prehistoric Hunters and Gatherers: the Emergence of Cultural Complexity, ed. by T.D. Price and J.A. Brown, pp. 271- 298. Academic Press, New York.

 

Week 9: Oct 23 - Interaction with Neighboring Cultures

 

Lathrap, D.W.

1968  The "Hunting Economies of the Tropical Forest Zone of South America: An Attempt at Historical Perspective. In: R.B. Lee and I. DeVore, eds., Man the Hunter, pp. 23-29. Aldine, Chicago.

 

Headland, T.N., and L.A. Reid

1989 Hunter-gatherers and their neighbors from prehistory to the present. Current Anthropology 30(1):43- 208.

 

Lukacs, J.R.

1989 On hunter-gatherers and their neighbors in prehistoric India: Contact and pathology. Current Anthropology 31(2):183-186.

 

Bailey, R.C., G. Head, M. Jenike, B. Owen, R. Rechtman, and E. Zechenter

1989 Hunting and gathering in the tropical rain forest: Is it possible? American Anthropologist 91:59-82.

 

Hitchcock, R.K

1994 Kalahari land use systems: An ethnoarchaeological perspective. Paper presented at symposium "Resolving Africa's Environmental and Socioeconomic Problems: An Archaeological Perspective," American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meetings, San Francisco, CA, Feb. 18-23, 1994.

 

Week 10: October 30 - The Revisionist Debate

 

Solway, J.S., and R.B. Lee

1990 Foragers, genuine or spurious? Situating the Kalahari San in history. Current Anthropology 31(2):109- 146.

 

Wilmsen, E.N., and J.R. Denbow

1990 Paradigmatic history of San-speaking peoples and current attempts at revision. Current Anthropology 31(5):489-524.

 

Lee, R.B.

1992 Art, science or politics: The crisis in hunter-gatherer studies. American Anthropologist 94:31-54.

 

Schott, M.J.

1991 Archaeological implications of revisionism in ethnography. Michigan Discussions in Anthropology: Hunter-Gatherer Studies 10:31-40.

 

Kent, S.

1992 The current forager controversy: Real versus ideal views of hunter-gatherers. Man (N.S.) 27:45-70.

 

Sylvain, R.

2002 “Land, Water, and Truth”, San identity and global indigenism. American Anthropologist 104 (4):1074-1085.

 


Week 11: Nov 6 - Updating Current Views on Affluence

 

Sahlins, M.

1972 The Original Affluent Society. In: Stone Age Economics, pp. 1-39.

 

Testart, A.

1988 Some major problems in the social anthropology of hunter-gatherers. Current Anthropology 29(1):1-31.

 

Smith, E.A.

1991 The current state of hunter-gatherer studies. Current Anthropology 32(1):72-75.

 

Bird-David, N.

1992 Beyond "The Original Affluent Society." Current Anthropology 33(1):25-47.

 

Kaplan, D.

2000 The darker side of the “Original Affluent Society.” Journal of Anthropological Research 56 (3):301-324.

 

Week 12: November 13 - Ethnoarchaeology

 

Kelly, R.L.

1995 Ch. 9. Hunter-Gatherers and Prehistory. The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways, pp. 333-344. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.

 

Binford, L.R.

1967 Smudge pits and hide smoking: the use of analogy in archaeological reasoning. American Antiquity 32(1):1-12.

 

Binford, L.R.

1968 Methodological considerations of the archeological use of ethnographic data. In: R.B. Lee and I. DeVore, eds., Man the Hunter, pp. 268-273. Aldine, Chicago.

 

Binford, L.R.

1972 Archaeological reasoning and smudge pits – revisited. In: L.R. Binford, An Archaeological Perspective, pp. 52-58. Seminar Press, New York.

 

Binford, L.R.

1977 General introduction. In: L.R. Binford, ed., For Theory Building in Archaeology: Essays on Faunal Remains, Aquatic Resources, Spatial Analysis, and Systemic Modeling, pp. 1-10. Academic Press, New York.

 

Wobst, H.M.

1978 The archaeo-ethnography of hunter-gathers, or the tyranny of the ethnographic record in archaeology.American Antiquity 43:303-309.

 

Gould, R.A.

1978 The anthropology of human residues. American Anthropologist 80:815-835.

 

Binford, L.R.

1981 Middle Range Research and the Role of Actualistic Studies. In: Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myths, pp. 21-30. Academic Press, New York.

 

Binford, L.R.

1985 Brand"X" versus the recommended product. American Antiquity 50:(3):580-590.

 

Gould, R.A.

1985 The empiricist strikes back: Reply to Binford. American Antiquity 50:(3):638-644.

Week 13: November 20Site Structure

 

O'Connell, J.F.

1987 Alyawara site structure and its archaeological implications. American Antiquity 52(1):74-108.

 

Janes, R.R.

1989        A comment on microdebitage analyses and cultural site-formation processes among tipi dwellers.  American Antiquity 54(4):851-855.

 

Simms, R.S., and K.M. Heath

1990 Site Structure of the Orbit Inn: An Application of Ethnoarchaeology. American Antiquity 55(4):797-813.

 

Smith, C.S., and L.M. McNees

1999 Facilities and hunter-gatherer long-term land use patterns: an example from southwest Wyoming. American Antiquity 64(1):117-136.

 

Widlok, T.

1999 Mapping spatial and social permeability. Current Anthropology 40 (3):392-400.

 

Week 14: Nov 27 Thanksgiving Recess

 

Week 15: Dec 4 - Faunal Analysis

 

Yellen, J.E.

1977 Cultural Patterning in Faunal Remains: Evidence from the !Kung Bushmen. In: D. Ingersoll, J.E. Yellen and W. Macdonald, eds., Experimental Archeology, pp. 271-331.

 

Jarvenpa, R., and H.J. Brumbach

1983 Ethnarchaeological perspectives on an Athapaskan moose kill. Arctic 36 (2):174-184.

 

Binford, L.R.

1984 Butchering, sharing, and the archaeological record. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 3:235-257.

 

Hudson, J.

1990 Identifying food sharing archaeologically: an ethnoarchaeological study among the Aka. Paper presented at the Sixth International Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies, Fairbanks.

 

Speth, J.D.

1990 Seasonality, resource stress, and food sharing in so-called “egalitarian” foraging societies. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 9:148-188.

 

Helm, J.

1993 “Always with them either a feast or a famine”: living off the land with Chipewyan Indians, 1791-1792. Arctic Anthropology 30 (2):46-60.

 

Lupo, K.D. and J. F. O'Connell

2002 Cut and Tooth Mark Distributions on Large Animal Bones: Ethnoarchaeological Data from the Hadza and Their Implications For Current Ideas About Early Human Carnivory, Journal of Archaeological Science 29(1):85-109

 

Enloe, J.G.

2003 Food Sharing Past and Present: Archaeological Evidence for Economic and Social Interaction. Before Farming: the archaeology and anthropology of hunter-gatherers 2003/1(1):1-23.

 

Week 16: Dec 11 - Technology

 

Binford, L.R.

1977 Forty-seven Trips: A Case Study in the Character of Archaeological Formation Process. In: R.V.S. Wright, ed., Stone Tools as Cultural Markers, pp. 24-36. Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands, NJ. (reprinted in: L.R.Binford 1983, Working at Archaeology, pp. 243-268. Academic Press, New York.)

 

Ebert, J.I.

1979 An Ethnoarchaeological Approach to Reassessing the Meaning of Variability in Stone Tool Assemblages. In: C.Kramer, ed., Ethnoarchaeology: Implications of Ethnography for Archaeology, pp.59-74. Columbia University Press, New York.

 

Binford, L.R.

1986 An Alyawara Day: Making Men's Knives and Beyond. American Antiquity 51 (3):547-562.

 

Bleed, P.

1986 The optimal design of hunting weapons: maintainability or reliability. American Antiquity 51:737-747.

 

Roscoe, P.B.

1990 The bow and spreadnet: Ecological origins of hunting technology. American Anthropologist 92:691-701.

 

Bamforth, D.B.

1991 Technological organization and hunter-gatherer land use: A California example. American Antiquity 56:(2):216-234.

 

Greaves, R.D.

1996 Ethnoarchaeology of wild root collection among savanna foragers of Venezuela. Paper presented at the 54th annual Plains Anthropological conference, Iowa City, October 31, 1996.

 

Osborn, A.J.

1999 From global models to regional patterns: Possible determinants of Folsom hunting weapon design, diversity, and complexity. In: D.S. Amick, ed., Folsom Lithic Technology: Explorations in Structure and Variability, pp.188-213. International Monographs in Prehistory, Ann Arbor.