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ANTH 522 Hunter-Gatherer EthnoarchaeologyDr. Mark Plew

Anthropology Department Conference Room , 1:40-4:40, T

Spring Semester, 2008

Introduction

This course will explore variation in foraging life ways of prehistoric and contemporary

hunter-gatherers. Its focus relates to how hunter-gatherers affect behavioral solutions to

subsistence within varied environments. We will examine ways in which hunting andgathering strategies use differing patterns of social interaction, mobility and technologies

to successfully exploit their environments. The course will emphasize the ways in which

hunter-gatherer diversity is explained through the use of various models, theories andinsights drawn from behavioral ecology. The course will examine lithic resource

acquisition, organizational variability of lithic and faunal assemblages and site structure

as sources of archaeological interpretation. This course will consist of discussions,student presentations and written papers. The first nine weeks of this course will includean intensive review of hunter-gatherer diversity.

Objectives

Completion of this course will enable the student to:

Discuss the history of hunter-gatherer research Discuss models of behavioral/evolutionary ecology that are used to explain food

choices and settlement patterns Describe and discuss examples of hunter-gatherer mobility and settlement,

resource acquisition and social organization

Discuss and critique models and theories used to explain hunter-gathererbehaviors

Discuss analogical applications of hunter-gatherer behavior to contexts of earlyhominid/human evolution and later prehistoric periods

Required Texts

The Foraging Spectrum by Robert L. Kelly

Recommended:

Limited Wants, Unlimited Means: A Reader on Hunter-Gatherer Economics

Environment, Edited by John Gowdy

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Books you may wish to review that you may wish to look at:

Hunter-Gatherer Foraging Strategies: Ethnographic and Archaeological Analyses by B.Winterhalder and E.A. Smith

Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behaviorby E.A. Smith and B. Winterhalder

Hunter-Gatherers in History, Archaeology and Anthropology, Edited by Alan Barnard*

Hunter-Gatherers: Archaeological and Evolutionary Theory by Robert L. Bettinger

Ethnoarchaeology and Hunter-Gatherers, Edited by K. Fewster and M. Zvelebil

Hunter-Gatherer Landscapes by Michael Jochim

Cultural Diversity Among Twentieth Century Foragers, Edited by Susan Kent

Hunters and Gatherers in the Modern World, Edited by P. Schweitzer, M. Biesele, and R.

Hitchcock

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherersby Lee and Daly

Constructing Frames of Reference: An Analytical Method for Archaeological Theory

Building Using Hunter-Gatherer Data Sets. University of California Press, Berkeley byLewis R. Binford

Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeology of Mobility edited by Sellet, Greaves and Yu

Course Requirements and Evaluation

You will be evaluated in terms of your participation in class and by the quality of your

written and presented work. There will be no exams in this course. You will write four

short but highly detailed and synthetic essays on topics complimenting our readings (25points each). These are due the week following there assignment.These will serve to

facilitate our discussions. The major assignments in the course will be the preparation ofa 15-25 page research paper relating to some aspect of hunter-gathereranthropology/archaeology and a twenty (20) to thirty (30) minute oral presentation based

on the research paper. Research topics must be cleared with the instructor and the papers

prepared by March 15. A formal abstract of the paper is due by February 19tth.

.Theresearch paper and presentation will each count 100 points toward a total of 300 points

for the course. I have made specific assignments in the syllabus including those relating

to your responsibility to locate and prepare for discussion topical papers beyond those

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assigned. The last weeks of the course you will present your papers to my undergraduate

hunter-gather class and serve as discussants for their papers.

Grading

Grades will be assigned per the following scale:

A=300-270B=296-266

C=265-235

D=234-204F=203 or fewer points

Office Hours

TTH 10:30-12:00 or by Appointment. Phone: 426-3444. Email: mplew@boisestate.edu

Course Syllabus

Week 1. The History of Hunter-Gatherer Research-Anthropological Approaches to

Hunters and Gatherers

Kelly, The Foraging Spectrum, Chapters 1-2.

Salhlins in Gowdy (1986)

Yengoyan, Anthropological History and the Study of Hunters and Gatherers: Cultural

and Non-cultural (suggestedin Barnard)Binford, Bands May Exist only in the History of Anthropology in Archaeology and

Ethnoarchaeology of Mobility, Sellet, Greaves and Yu, 2006

Week 2. Subsistence, Mobility and Exchange

Kelly, The Foraging Spectrum, Chapters 3-5Lee, What Hunters do for a Living in Gowdy (1986)

Hill, Hawkes and Hurtado, Kaplan, Seasonal Variance in the Diet of the Ache inHuman Ecology 1984 (suggested)Alvord, Intraspecific Prey Choice by Amazonian Hunters in Current Anthropology

36(suggested).Winterhalder, Optimal Foraging: Simulation Studies of Diet Choice in a Stochastic

Environment inJournal of Ethnobiology 6, 1986(suggested)

Essay 1. Discuss the relationship between subsistence and mobility

mailto:mplew@boisestate.edumailto:mplew@boisestate.edu

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Weeks 3 and 4. Foraging Behavior, Group Size and Reproduction

Kelly, The Foraging Spectrum, Chapters 6-7

Glassow, M., The Concept of Carrying Capacity in the Study of Culture Change, in M.

Schiffer, Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory 1: 31-48 1978

Optimization and Risk in Human Foraging Strategies by Yellen in Journal of HumanEvolution (suggested)

Marlowe, F., Marital Residence Among Foragers in Current Anthropology 44

(suggested)

Essay 2. How do foraging behaviors vary by groups size? How is this related to

reproduction?

Week 5. Hunter-Gatherer Social Structure/Organization

Kelly, The Foraging Spectrum, Chapter 8

Woodburn , Egalitarian Societies, in Man 1982Leacock, Womens Status in Egalitarian Society: Implications for Social Evolution, in

Gowdy 1998

Week 6. Hunting and Gathering Behaviors and Paleoanthropology

Kelly, The Foraging Spectrum, Chapter 9

Sept, J.M., Beyond Bones: Archaeological Sites, Early Hominid Subsistence and the

Costs and Benefits of Exploiting Wild Plant Foods in East African Riverine LandscapesInJournal of Human Evolution 27:295-320 (required)

Shipman, Scavenging or Hunting in Early Hominids: Theoretical Frameworks andTests inAmerican Anthropologist(required) 1986

Quiatt and Huffman, On Home Bases, Nesting Sites, Activity Centers and New Analytic

Perspectives in Current Anthropology (suggested)

OConnell, Hawkes and Jones, Hadze Scavenging: Implications for Plio/PleistoceneHominid Subsistence, Current Anthropology (suggested) 1988

Kaplan, Hill, Lancaster, Hurtado, A Theory of Human Life History Evolution: Diet,

intelligence and Longevity inEvolutionary Anthropology 9(4): 156-185. 2001

Ethnoarchaeological Perspectives on Hunter-Gatherer Mobility, Subsistence and

Settlement

Week 7. Organizational Variability

Wobst, M., The Archaeo-Ethnography of Hunter-gatherers: The Tyranny of the

Ethnographic Record in Archaeology,American Antiquity 43: 303-309Binford, Dimensional Analysis of Behavior and Site Structure: Learning from an

Eskimo Hunting Stand and Willow Smoke and Dogs Tails: Hunter-Gatherer Settlement

Systems and Archaeological Site Formation inAmerican Antiquity (required) 1980

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Kent, Relationship Between Mobility Strategies and Site Structure and The

Archaeological Visibility of Storage: Delimiting Storage from Trash,American Antiquity,

1999 (required)

Technological Organization and Mobility: An Ethnographic Example, M. Schott,Journal

of Anthropological Science 1986 (required)

Kelly, Mobility/Sedentism: Concepts, Archaeological Measures and Effects,AnnualReview of Anthropology (required) 1992

Essay 3. Outline what you see as the most critical arguments regarding archaeologicalassemblage organization.

Week 8. Resource Intensification and Use

Simms, Acquisition and Nutritional Data on Great Basin Resources inJournal ofCalifornia and Great Basin Anthropology (required) 1986

Broughton, Late Holocene Resource Intensification in the Sacramento Valley,California The Vertebrate Evidence (required) 1994

Locate two additional papers pertaining to resource intensification/depression andbe prepared to discuss them

Essay 4. Using data from sources outside the required readings summarize recentexamples of how archaeofauna have been used to address issues of resource

intensification and depression.

Week 9. Site Formation and Site Structure

Simms, and Heath, Site Structure of the Orbit In: An application of Ethnoarchaeology,American Antiquity 45: 797-813.

Located two additional papers regarding site formation and site structure and beprepared to discuss them

Week 10. Archaeological Evidence of Complex Hunter-Gatherers

Kelly, The Foraging Spectrum, Chapter 8 for review

Testart, The Significance of Food Storage Among Hunters and Gatherers: Residence

Patterns and Population Densities in Current Anthropology (suggested)Hayden, Competition , Labor and Complex Hunter-Gatherers in Key Issues in Hunter-

Gatherer Research (suggested) 1994

Yesner, D.R., Maritime Hunter-Gatherers: Ecology and Prehistory, in CurrentAnthropology 21: 727-750.

Week 11. Faunal Analysis

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Yellen, Cultural Patterning in Faunal Remains: Evidence from the Kung Bushmen! InExperimental Archaeology, 1977 (required)Binford, Butchering, Sharing and the Archaeological Record, Journal of Anthropological

Archaeology 3: 325-257, 1984 (required)

Lupo and Schmitt, On Late Holocene Variability in Bison Populations in Northeastern

Great Basin. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 19:50-69. (required)1996

Lupo and Schmidt, Small Prey Hunting Technology and Zooarchaeological Measures of

Taxanomic Diversity and Abundance: Ethnoarchaeological Evidence from CentralAfrican Forest Foragers,Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 24: 335-353. 2003

(required)

Locate an additional paper dealing with faunal analysis in Ethnoarchaeology andbe prepared to discuss it

Week 12. Technology

Binford, Forty Seven Trips in Stone tools and Cultural Markers 1977, and An Alyawara

Day: Making Mens Knives and Beyond,American Antiquity 51:547-562.Bamforth, D., Technological Organization and Hunter-Gatherer Land Use: A Californian

ExampleAmerican Antiquity 56: 216-234.

Plew and Woods, Observations on Edge Damage and Technological Effects on Pressure

Flaked Stone Tools, in Stone Tool Analysis: Essays in Honor of Don Crabtree,University of New Mexico Press, 1985

Sellet, Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Inference of Mobility Patterns from Stone

Tools, in Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeology of Mobility, edited by Sellet, Greaves andYu, 2006 (required)

Locate an additional paper dealing with the Ethnoarchaeology of technology andbe prepared to discuss

Week 13. The Future of Hunter-Gatherer Research

Bettinger, Hunter-Gatherers: Problems in Theory inHunter-Gatherers in

Anthropological and Evolutionary TheorySolway, J.S., and R.B. Lee, Foragers Genuine or Spurious, Current Anthropology,

31:109-146Wilmsen, E.N., and J.R. Denbow, Paradigmantic History of the San-speaking Peoples

and current attempts at revision Current Anthropology 31: 489-524.Kent, S., The Current Forager Controversy: Real vs. Ideal Views of Hunter-Gatherers inMan 27: 45-70.

Binford, Bands May Exist only in the History of Anthropology in Archaeology and

Ethnoarchaeology of Mobility, Sellet, Greaves and Yu, 2006 (review)

Weeks 14-18. Presentation of Papers and Participation in ANTH 400 as Discussant