Anthro Learning Outcomes
Archer et al. (2014) describes evidence for use of aquatic resources in the Turkana Basin (Kenya) going back 1.95 mya. They argue that turtles and catfish were especially important. What archaeological evidence supports this?
"Archer et al. suggest that the early humans at Lake Turkana did not need much technology to take catfish and turtles." Catfish (Clarias in particular) account for more than 90% of all fish remains in Late Pleistocene archaeological sites in Africa. Catfish are particularly vulnerable when they are spawning on shallow river floodplains during the rainy season, and during the late dry season when they get trapped in residual pools and on beaches as lake waters recede. Although certain species of catfish can 'walk' using their pectoral fins, they are particularly vulnerable to predation when doing so. Turtle too, being amphibious, are both situationally and seasonally vulnerable to predation. They are particularly vulnerable when they are mating at the surface of the water or in shallow water (as they are immobile when doing so), and when they are nesting on the beach and are vulnerable to turning.
Describe Cote's (2015) usage of the word "subsistence." Explain reasons why this word does not appear to have a pejorative meaning as it does to some Alaska Natives.
"Subsistence" -Cote's usage is consistent with general anthropological usage, with the word lacking the negative associations held by some Alaska Natives The Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth people no longer need to whale for subsistence. Neither do we need whale meat, blubber, and oil as a food source. However, we realize that reintroducing whale products back into our diets is important for our overall wellbeing and community health. The whale's nutritional value is important in addressing our dietary needs and could alleviate some of the health problems that plague the Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth communities. Putting whale oil and meat back on our dinner tables means a return to a healthier lifestyle. Reviving whaling tradition goes beyond health concerns. Whale hunts also maintain community solidarity and collective security through communal hunting, processing, distributing, and consuming of whale products by the community members.
What analogies do Archer at al. use in their study of aquatic resource? What analogies do other investigators use?
"Sutures are natural weak points through which force entering the bone surface via hard-hammer percussion can be deliberately directed, similar in analogy to a fault within a rock that is being knapped"
Based on Deetz and Deetz's (2000) synthesis of historical evidence, name the wild and domesticated foods that were probably eaten at the "First Thanksgiving" (wild: ducks, geese, deer, maybe turkeys, domesticated: maybe corn, beans, squash). Other common Wampanoag foods that were probably eaten include wild eels, cod, bass, lobsters, mussels, herbs, dried fruits (strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries, plums). Name the foods some Americans eat on Thanksgiving day that were not served on the "First Thanksgiving" (sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes & gravy, ham, macaroni & cheese, pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, tofurkey). Note that turkeys in the northeastern U.S. were wild turkeys, not the domesticated varieties (first domesticated in Mexico, later the Southwest).
(Sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes & gravy, ham Mac & cheese, pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, tofurkey) Note that turkeys in the northeastern U.S were wild turkeys, not the domesticated varieties (first domesticated in Mexico, later the SW).
Describe how clam gardens are part of larger systems of traditional resource management (also see Brown and Brown (2009)). Explain how this connects to the assertion of Indigenous rights and access to traditional lands and resources.
- Boulder/cobble ridge in lower intertidal, across small embayments in mostly rocky shoreline - Creates sandlot from ridge into middle intertidal - Usually boulder veneer over bedrock ramp in upper intertidal
Moss refers to the Pacific Herring as a cultural keystone species. Explain how a 'cultural keystone' species differs from the biological term, 'keystone species'.
- Keystone species (as used in biology or ecology) is a species whose presence and role w/ in an ecosystem has a disproportionate effect on other organisms within the system. A keystone species can be a dominant predator whose removal allows a prey population to explode and often decrease overall diversity (such as sea otter, wolf). A beer is not a predator, but is a keystone species b/c it alters the habitats of so many other organisms - Cultural Keystone Species (as used in Anthropology and Archaeology) is a species that 'shapes the identity of a people'. - In a masonry arch, the keystone is the capstone which provides stability and holds all other stones in the arch together.
Moss's (1993) study was stimulated by an apparent disagreement between ethnographic information and archaeological evidence. Describe how she reconciled these differences.
- She argues that ethnographers had little to no interest in activities of women, but shellfish gathering was mainly a Tlingit women activity - It gathered less interest to ethnographers than fishing and hunting
Discuss why documenting weirs and traps is important to Indigenous communities and fishing communities more generally. What makes these archaeological resources difficult to study and preserve?
- Weirs and traps are part of intertidal resource management - Increase over time in numbers of weirs/traps may reflect intensification of fishing, better preservation or visibility - hard to preserve because they're constantly being beaten by nature (the water)
Using various readings in the Unit, list six ways people in the PNW took fish
- Weirs/traps -Nets - Harpoons -hands -Hook and line
Identify the rules dictating when Tlingit women cannot eat shellfish. Identify the rules dictating when a shaman cannot eat shellfish. Summarize the general theme to the rules in a sentence or two. Describe the reasons Moss gives for these taboos (including PSP)
- Women eating shellfish meant impurity, which could be compared to adultery. It appears that from ethnographic information that historically, Tlingit saw women as powerful whose misbehavior had to be tightly controlled. Such ideas have, of course, changed over time, with many powerful Tlingit women in leadership positions across all sectors of society today. - Ritual Purity for women was required during times of menstruation, after giving birth, and when mourning. - A shaman cannot eat shellfish pretty much all the time
Review the nutritional data in the tables and graphs (moss 2016). List the top three Tlingit foods as measured by calories, protein, and fat. List the top three Tlingit foods when considering micronutrients (iron, copper, zinc and selenium). In addition to herring, list five other Tlingit foods mentioned in this article that are especially nutritious.
-Calories: Eulachon, 308. Protein: Herring Roe- Dried, 60.4. Fat: Eulachon, 24.8. -The only micronutrients listed were from five North Pacific fish. Herring provides the most amount of iron and respectable amounts of zinc and copper. Lingcod provides the most zinc and copper. Both herring and linked provide more zinc and copper than Chinook salmon. For selenium, herring eggs provide a large quantity, over twice that of the second-ranked rockfish. Herring flesh is ranked third. - Most common foods were fish and marine mammals that provided fat and protein, so some important Tlingit foods were other fish such as Eulachon which provides the most calories and fat, salmon also provides a good source of calories and protein, dried seaweed is a good source of carbohydrates, beavers provide a good amount of calories and protein, bears and seals provide a good source of calories and fat, and so on.
Describe how herring were caught during pre-contact times, how they were prepared and processed, and how they were stored, paying attention to seasonal variations. Be sure to discuss herring eggs, meat, and oil.
-Heiltsuk Kelp Gardens to farm herring roe -Using herring rakes and nets, dried, stone traps (which attracted herring predators-- birds) -Herring, eulachon, and seal blubber were all treated the same way to extract their oil
Describe where most wood stake weirs and stone traps are found. Explain how they were used to catch salmon. List some of the fish in addition to salmon that can be caught using these structures. How old are the oldest weirs/traps? In which sub-region have they been radiocarbon-dated most fully? Explain what weir and trap construction suggests about the social organization of the people who built them. Important marine fish we discuss include halibut, cod, herring, eulachon, and rockfish. Other important riverine fish confined to rivers include sturgeon.
-Most wood stake weirs and stone traps are found in areas prosperous in fish (mainly salmon, but also herring, smelt, and eulachon) - oldest 5650-1250 cal BP (Mitkof Island, AK) -Weir Traps suggests a more advanced society that would have had to work together in the planning and construction of weirs as they require significant labour and planning.
Using the text and/or Table 2 in Moss (2007), list the four most abundant bird species identified in the set of Forrester Island assemblages. Using the auxiliary map in your module, which of these were most abundant in sites on the east side of the island(s) and which on the west side? explain how this relates to the biological information on nesting sites described in the text.
-Rhinoceros Auklet, Cassin's Auklet, Common Murre, Tufted Puffin -Waterfall cave and Saddle site were on the east side of the island with the Rhinoceros Auklet and Cassin's Auklet as the most abundant. -Softshell Cave and Red Lichen Cave contained the Common Murre and tufted Puffin.
Explain how archaeological preservation and coastal processes affect our ability to document the archaeological record of clam gardens and fishing weirs today. How will this change in the next ten years?
-Sea cliff erosion and rising sea levels (worsened by climate change) are causing destruction of coastal archaeological sites on all coasts. - With rising sea levels (global climate change) and sea cliff retreat, archaeological sites are eroding along the world's shorelines
Explain why shellfish were undervalued in the ethnographic record according to Moss (1993). Be sure to consider both technology and gender.
-Shellfish were associated with poverty, lower status class and dirtiness - A lot of ethnographers didn't think it was important. - Men never handled them, generally only women - Limited technology - Shellfish were seen as "bread and butter"
The Forrester Island became a bird sanctuary in 1912. Explain how this has affected Tlingit and Haida use of birds. The author wanted her study to support the case for Alaska Natives being allowed to harvest birds or eggs from these islands. This is an example of "applied zoo-archaeology" in which archaeological information can be used to understand the long term status of fish and wildlife in the past (historical ecology). Check the U.S. Fish and Wildlife services regulations for gull collecting. Is it legal for Alaska Natives to collect gull eggs from the forester Islands today?
-Tlingit and Haida were unable to legally harvest birds/eggs from the island -There are certain areas and season in which gull egg collecting is allowed/regulated
Several different meanings of "subsistence" are discussed in Moss (2010). Describe the: 1) Wikipedia definition, 2) L.H. Morgan's usage, 3) archaeologists' common usage, 4) State of Alaska's definition, and 5) federal government's definition. For more information and State and Federal programs, see http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=subsistence.main and https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/web_subsistence_management_program_brochure_2016.pdf
-Wiki: A group attempts to produce no more output per period than they must consume in that period in order to survive, but do not attempt to accumulate wealth or to transfer productivity from one period to the next - L.H Morgan's usage: he identified seven "ethical stages" including lower, middle, and upper stages of savagery, lower, middle, upper stages of barbarism, and civilization. Morgan also specified seven "constants" of society: subsistence, Government, Language, Family, Religion, House Life and Architecture, and Property. Morgan dedicated an entire chapter to the "successive arts" of subsistence; these were "Natural Subsistence," "Fish Subsistence," and "Farinaceous Subsistence," (cultivation of cereals), "Meat and Milk Subsistence," and "Unlimited Subsistence through Field Agriculture." In such a scheme, hunters were fully dependent on nature, while farmers had cultural means-- technical, social, mental, and moral-- that place them in a superior position to nature. - Archaeologists common usage: The term "subsistence" is routinely used by archaeologists to refer to how a group of people obtain basic food and shelter -Federal Governments def: In Alaska, neither federal nor state laws explicitly define subsistence, but both levels of government regulate subsistence. Subsistence is generally considered the harvest of wild foods for personal or family use.
Bone marrow is extracted from the medullary cavity of shafts (diaphyses) of long bones. Bone grease is made by breaking up the cancellous bone in the epiphyses of long bones and then boiling these fragments for a substantial amount of time. You will see the marrow and also break up the epiphyses to make bone grease in Lab #8.
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What is the maximum safe level of protein intake for modern humans? What other foods are needed in the humans diet?
0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight is the recommended daily amount. Other foods necessary are dairy, carbs, veggies and fruits.
Summarize the advantages of aquatic resource use as described in the Turkana Basin case.
1) a reduction in energy investment relative to economic return, 2) a decrease in the technological costs of resource acquisition relative to accessing terrestrial animal tissues, and 30 a reduced level of inter-specific competition associated with carcass access and an associated reduction of predation risk.
Explain the chronology and content of the two transformative times (Wrangham 2009) identified in the history of our genus.
2.3 mya - Homo Habilis - Discovered by the Leakeys, they were Oldowan tool-makers who walked upright and had larger brains than australopithecines. According to Wrangham, they routinely ate meat which contributed to their biological evolution 1.9-1.8 mya - Homo Erectus - More similar to his than Homo Habilis, but had smaller brains and lower foreheads than we do. They were able to cook food with fire, not just meat, but plants too. They are associated with Acheulian Technology.
With information from Speth (2015) and this video from the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9gKzea3Cno), describe the critical detail necessary to successfully boil water in a paper cup over an open flame.
A paper cup can boil as long as it has liquid in it.
Food shortages occurred prior to contact (pre-contact) and post-contact. Describe several ways people buffered the effects of food shortages before contact. Explain how and why food shortages occurred after contact.
According to Kelm, prior to European contact, how did NW coast people buffer food shortages or prevent large-scale famine? -Trade with each other, developing food storage technologies, and intensified use of certain plants Shortages occurred due to diseases and invasive species (both flora and fauna)
Describe the evidence for land or root plot ownership by the Coast Salish. Describe who owned camas plots and how they were inherited. As you read, take note of the ownership of other resource patches.
Although we don't have specific ethnographic or archaeological evidence that the Kalapuya owned camas plots and marked them with wood stakes, shallow ditches or lines of rock, the Coast Salish marked their owned plots the same ways according to Suttles. Of these practices, ones that might leave an arch signature would be shallow ditches or lines of rocks. Wood stakes probably would NOT preserve in an open site.
Identify the 3 hypotheses Gowlett and Wrangham (2013) describe about early fire use.
Archaeological Hypothesis Dietary Hypothesis: Something along the lines that early humans needed a cooked diet (due to it being highly digestible) in order to develop the way that they did (smaller digestive system) Social Hypothesis: social brain hypothesis explains huge increase in hominid brain size. By the extension, expensive tissue hypothesis, brains can't get bigger without reducing other crucial tissue (fire eased digestion that reduced the digestive system)
Revisit Learning Outcome #41 about how the colonial history British Columbia differs from that of Washington. Describe how the Treaty of Neah Bay with the Makah differs from the situation of the Nuu-chah-nulth in BC.
Article 4 of the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay guarantees to the Makah tribe the "right of taking fish and of whaling and sealing at usual and accustomed grounds and stations." This is the only treaty signed between the U.S government and a tribe that secures and protects a tribal right to whale. Makahs negotiated a treaty right to hung whales, but Nuu-cha-nulth didn't sign treaties. Makahs are in WA and Nuu-chah-nulth are in BC. They have different colonial histories and are subject to different laws. Inuit in Canada do have a right to hunt bowhead whales which is also regulated by the International Whaling Commission; but Nuu-chah-nulth are still in treaty negotiations. This museum exhibit was part of an effort to publicize the Nuu-chah-nulth's connection to whales and whaling and to educate the public about this and try to garner their support.
Why has the site Zhoukoudian in Northern China been problematic for making the case for human-controlled fire? Do Gowlett and Wrangham evaluate this evidence?
Because much of the 'burnt' material was shown not tone burnt, but from mineral staining, and it has also been shown that there is no evidence for formal hearths BUT burnt bones do occur in the early site and remains likely that it was from human fire use rather than natural burning This is all as evaluated by Gowlett and Wrangham
Explain why use of the term "prehistory" can be problematic in NA.
Because the term values written records more than other sources of history, devalues Indigenous sources of history, Alaska Natices & Native Americans with whom Moss has worked with dislike it, and it can mistakenly be conflated with "primitive".
How old are the oldest earth ovens in the Old World? How old are the oldest earth ovens in the Americas? Where in North America do we find earth ovens? According to Black and Thoms, when did cooking with earth ovens intensify?
Black & Thoms (2014:206) state that the oldest in the Old World date from 35,000-31,000 years ago in Europe, Japan, Australia, and Bismarck Archipelago. Oldest camas ovens in the Willamette Valley are at least 9000 years old (New World) This intensification is what Thoms has called the "pre-agricultural carbohydrate revolution." He suggests that this labor-intensive technology grew out of the need to support higher human populations densities in western North America.
Explain how increasing settler populations constrained the ability of FN to provide themselves with wild foods. Discuss how the promotion of agriculture, new systems of land ownership, industrial fishing, and a cash economy affected Alaska Natives, FN, and Native Americans' abilities to acquire wild foods through their traditional seasonal rounds.
Changes in the fur trade - Sea otter vastly reduced by 1825 - Maritime trade shifts to land-based trade (terrestrial forbearers) - Power of outer coast groups (Sitka Tlingit, Haida, Nuuchahnulth) shifts to mainland groups with access to interior furs (Stikine Tlingit, Tsimshian, Nuxalk) - British and American Fur traders in a better position than Russians NW coast tied into world economy - AK natives, Native American and FN involved in fur trade; changed their seasonal rounds, settlement patterns, land and resource use, food production, etc. - Adopted new technologies foods, wealth items - Introduced diseases that reduced population sizes, some labor shortages, forced changes in social relationships, more raiding and slaving. - Influx of white settler vastly changed land & resource use Taking of Native lands resulted in: establishment of reservations in OR, WA, B.C>, the Tongas National Forest and national parks in AK> - Prime rela estate was taken for cities & settlers - Some Indigenous groups were displaced from their homelands, making it hard for them to obtain traditional foods -Euro- Americans, Euro-Canadias pressured FN to raise domestic animals and farm -Access to fishing sites, hunting, trapping & gathering territories declined Industrial Fishing - Canneries - Native fishing technologies were outlawed (gaff, dip net, weir/traps, reef net) - Low proportion of FN has licenses/permits to commercial fish - Salmon were over-fished, habitat destroyed by logging, dams, water taken for agriculture -FN could fish for food, but not sale or trade -Situation differs across AK, BC, WA, OR "Euro-Canadian Culinary Imperialism" - requiring FN children to drink cow's milk
Explain why cooking is such a radically important development in our ancient history.
Cooking kills bacteria, increases digestibility, helps prevent spoilage, increases available calories, allowed us to evolve to have smaller mouths, weak jaws, small teeth, stomachs, colons, and guts. Focused energy into developing the brain.
Cote's (2015) description of the long whaling traditions of Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth is based on anthropological and traditional knowledge accumulated over many years (some of which will be described in lecture). Describe how the story of the Makah's efforts to hunt whales over the last 25 years illustrates technologies of government used to regulate Makah cultural practices.
Cote describes the behavior required of her great-great-grandfather as he prepared to hunt a whale, including obtaining spiritual power, ritual cleansing, and rigorous training in canoeing. Cote is Tseshaht (one of the Nuu-chah-nulth groups). - Gray and humpback whales most abundant in Ozette assemblage. Monks (2003) discusses the outer layer of skin and blubber, then the next layer of meat, sinew, and most skeletal bone, then an innermost layer of viscera and intestinal fat. Blubber stayed edible for quite awhile, rarely became too rotten to use. -Whales are not caught, they give themselves to hunters -Whaling harpoon point in cedar bark sheath. Mussel shell point -1855 Treaty of Neah Bay -1994 Gray whales removed from Endangered Species list -1995 Makahs announce resumption of gray whale hunt -1997 Makahs granted permission from International Whaling Commission, developed whaling management plan -5/17/99 Makahs take one whale amidst outside protests
Re-visit Pobiner (2016). She mentions that DHA (docosahexaenoic acid_ and LC-PUFAs (long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids) are critical nutrients in human brain growth. Some researchers have suggested that DHA played an integral role in the evolution of the modern human brain.
DHA is essential for human brain growth and was integral in the evolution of the modern brain
Both Moss (2010) and Cote (2015) use the words "decolonize" and "decolonization." Describe what each of these authors is calling for.
Decolonization of subsistence: - Subsistence is more than obtaining one's minimal dietary requirements -threats to animal & plant resources are threats to Alaska Native Cultural survival -archaeological studies could provide information of value to Alaska Natives -Anthropologists have been part of bureaucratization of subsistence
Explain why direct evidence of fire early in the archaeological record is difficult to confirm. Why is wildfire hard to distinguish from human fire? Look up "equifinality". Do Gowlett and Wrangham think archaeologists have been conservative or liber in their interpretations of evidence for fire?
Direct evidence of fire early in the record is difficult to confirm because either could attribute to natural causes or be mistaken for mineral staining. It's difficult to distinguish wildfires and human fires because surviving evidence doesn't accurately map the past. Equifinality: The property of allowing or having the same effect or result from different events. Gowlett and Wrangham have been liberal because they think we need to move beyond simple presence/absence judgements about hearths as index of when people used fire. Regular human-fire interactions probably preceded fixed hearths in settlements.
How do the Cree make pemmican? What ingredients are included? How much work and effort goes into making each of the ingredients?
Dried Caribou powder & bear fat. Pemmican is nutrient and calorie dense, lightweight, easy to transport and trade, and preserves for a long time.
Describe why the archaeological record of Ozette is unique and how the archaeological data recovered from the site support the connections between Makah foods, identity, and culture.
Due to mudslide, Ozette is preserved much better than many other archaeological sited. The site shows lots of evidence for the use of whales as both a subsistence resource and an integral part of their culture and identity
Describe Richard Wrangham's "Cooking Hypothesis"
Eating cooked food allowed humans to evolve our large brains and cooking itself became a primary focus of human social activity. This hypothesis is based on (1) primatology (comparisons to non-human living primates), (2) analogies with ethnographic societies, (3) inferences he makes from knowledge of diet and nutrition, and (4) general information from the archaeological record.
Describe the adverse effects of an exclusively raw food diet eaten by modern humans today according to Wrangham.
Eating raw can cause frequent urination, and for most meat eaters, it increases the risk of eating toxins or other pathogens that would normally be destroyed by cooking, as well as low bone mass in the back and hips, low levels of vitamin B12, low levels of HDL cholesterol, and elevated levels of homocysteine. Inability to get pregnant, less sex drive.
Identify the effects of European contact and colonialism on different peoples in the PNW. What European foods were adopted quickly and became valuable trade goods? Why?
European contact: caused massive population decline through disease. Some labor shortages, forced changes in social relationships, more raiding savings. Influx of white settlers vastly changed land and resource use. Tlingit example of changing demands. Maritime trade shifts to land-based trade (terrestrials furbearer) - Other people enslaved natives to find fur - 1780s iron bars, knives, nails hatchets -1791 copper, iron vessels, European clothing -1794 iron no longer in demand; European clothing and cloth -1799 cloth, muskets, gunpowder -1801 $1000 in rice and molasses would bring in more furs than $10,000 in cloth -1802 rice and molasses were the only goods Tlingit would accept -Rice and molasses were so highly valued because Alaska lacked starchy plant foods such as camas, acorns, and wapato.
Based on Graesch et al., students will be able to describe what experimental archaeology is. Explain how experimental archaeology complements conventional methods of archaeological practice. Black and Thoms (2014) also draw from experimental archaeology in their descriptions of earth ovens. What variables do Graesch et al. control or measure in their experiments?
Experiment Architecture is reproducing events through projects and to explore original paths of though and develop innovative design tools and methodologies...
List the reasons why Speth claims that direct boiling is more efficient than stone boiling (in the absence of ceramic or metal vessels). List the types of pre-Neolithic perishable containers (and materials from which they are made) in which people can boil food. Explain why archaeological evidence of this type of wet-cooking is hard to find. Describe the evidence Speth uses to suggest that Neanderthals were capable of wet-cooking.
Experimental studies show that direct boiling is more efficient than stone-boiling, bringing the liquid contents to a boil more quickly, using less fuel, and yielding a much cleaner product at the end— free of ash and thermally-shattered rock debris. Big hide or gut containers would have been easier to support if placed in subsurface pits, but this way they could no longer be heated directly. None of the evidence we presently have at our disposal proves that humans prior to the UP were capable of wet-cooking but, given the relative simplicity of the technology and the wide availability of suitable materials, it seems very plausible, if not highly likely.
Describe what Cote means when she refers to "food sovereignty" and "food hegemony." Apply these concepts to a new context. For example, reconsider Yupik example in Lecture 14, in light of these concepts.
For Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth, whale hunting is about more than subsistence. For Makah its about cultural identity and having sovereignty over a resource provided for in their treaty. They believe whaling should be conducted legally, humanely, and non-commercially. The Nuu-chah-nulth are in the middle of a six-stage treaty negotiation process (the right to hunt whales is not in the current version). Cote states that whaling is central to Nuu-chah-nulth identity; it appears in storytelling, art, songs, and was essential in their diet. Both groups are trying to reconnect with their traditional life ways by resuming sustainable whaling. Cote writes that privileged societies have the power to determine what the world eats and impose their symbolic & aesthetic food taboos on others. This is also known and food hegemony and culinary imperialism. Food sovereignty: right of all people 'to safe, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food in sufficient quantity and quality to sustain life.' food hegemony: preponderant influence or authority over others.
The First Nation authors and contributors to Brown and Brown (2009) consider the stewardship of biodiversity as an important responsibility in working toward a sustainable future in coastal BC. They aim to combine traditional ecological knowledge with western science and have articulated "seven fundamental truths." While we don't require you to memorize these seven principles, this work can be consulted for special insight into First Nation values and how they relate to a variety of topics related to food and food sovereignty throughout the unit.
Fundamental Truths are: Creation Connection to Nature Respect/Life = Value Knowledge (sustainable resource use and management) Stewardship Sharing Adapting to Change
Meleamed et al. 2016 and Delgoshen (2016 "eurekalert") synopsis: what allowed for good preservation at the Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (GBY) site? What other conditions allow for good preservation of plant parts?
Good preservation was caused by water logging. conditions that allowed for good preservation of plant parts was hominids in the area preserved their food and water logging.
What does Moss mean when she claims that technologies of government and anthropologists have controlled and constrained people to "manage the social problem of subsistence users"
Governmentality: -managing "social problems" expertise used by governments to control subsistence users -technologies of power used to control AK natives -Subsistence crisis IS about race & ethnicity -Anthropologists as mediators or interpreters between state & federal governments & AK natives
From Lab #3, know the basic terminology of chipped stone tools. Know which attributes are diagnostic of human manufacture.
Hammerstone: A cobble or nodule used in making stone tools or for pounding Core: After a flake is removed through conchoidal fracture, the nodule is considered a core Core tool: core that shows trimming or use wear, indicating use as a tool. Cores have been used throughout time. Flake: piece of stone removed from a core by striking the core w/ a hammer stone (or antler or wood) Bulb of Percussion: the round swelling on the inner face of a flake or blade below the point of impact Striking platform: the area on a stone core on which the blow is struck to detach a flake Debitage: The leftover small flakes from stone tool-making Lomekwian tools - 3.3 mya, attributed to Kenyapithecus, (similar to australopithecines). These tools resemble Oldowan, but are found in much older contexts (first described in 2015) Oldowan: Stone tool tech that includes expediently made choppers, scrapers, and pounders associated with Homo Habilis, and possibly Australopithecus Shari and Homo dragster; recovered from Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania; 2.6-1.7 mya Acheulian: Stone tool tech of oval and pear shaped hand axes associated with Homo erectus; recovered across Africa, Europe, West and South Asia. Acheulian handles range in age: 1.76 mya to 100,00 BP
Re-examine the photographs in Outram (2002) to identify helical fractures, acute or obtuse vs. right angles, and smooth or rough fracture surfaces. Describe how to figure out the fracture freshness index.
Helical curves, transverse is perpendicular. The broken surface of a fresh fracture is usually smooth in nature, whilst on less fresh specimens it may be of rough appearance. On a fresh fracture, the angle of the fracture surface to the bone's cortical surface is usually acute or obtuse. Right angles are more common on unfresh specimens. The three principal criteria of fracture angle (criterion A), outline (B) and edge texture (C) were used in the creation of the fracture freshness index. For each criterion, a score of zero, one or two was given to each fragment. Zero was scored if the fragment was entirely consistent with fresh fracture according to that criterion. One was scored if some 'unfresh' features were present and two was scored if 'unfresh' features dominated.
Evidence of the vegetal parts of our ancestors' diets is rare in the archaeological record, and the meat component of the diet has been emphasized. Melamed et al. (2016) identified 55 plant taxa from an Acheulian site in Israel dated 780,000 years old. How did the authors determine which plants were foods? Do you think this was a good way to distinguish which plants were consumed as part of the Paleolithic diets represented at this site?
If the plants were found in the archaeological layer they were considered food. Also if they were consumed by recent rural societies. It may have been a good way to distinguish which were consumed, but diets back then may have been extremely different. Aquatic fauna was a key component of hominid subsistence because the fatty aquatic soft tissue was a key food when other resources were scarce.
Describe food sovereignty
In NA, Indigenous food sovereignty is the right of Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and FN to produce their own traditional foods on their own lands to sustain themselves, their families & communities. Native Americans had food sovereignty for thousands of years before first European contact. Food systems have dramatically changed to the detriment of Native people's health.
Between Lecture and watching the film, Ancient sea gardens, you have seen how John Harper first identified these sites. Describe how clam garden terraces are built and how they improve clam productivity. Like fishing weirs and traps, clam gardens represent investments in infrastructure and planning to increase food production in the intertidal zone.
In his investigations described in the film, John Harper found that clam terraces were built by people to enhance clam habitat.
Describe the Maillard reaction. Explain its impacts for human health.
It is a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned food its distinctive flavor. It makes food taste better but it gives cancer to other animals (we developed a tolerance for it).
Explain why the harvest of wild birds is important to Tlingit and Haida. Describe the social implications of migratory bird hunting for the local people who engage in it.
It used to be a large part of their diet and used the remains for many things such as tool making, largely affecting daily life.
Identifying different genres of scholarly literature
Journal Articles: Primary research article, review article Books: Single Authored, Edited Volume Monograph: Site report, Ethnographic study, Thesis/dissertation Other: Grey literature, Conference paper/poster
When we studied camas cooking (by Kalapuya and Coast Salish), we noted that raw camas contains small percentages (<10%) of various fibers, protein, sugars, several minerals, and high percentages of moisture and inulin. The key dietary ingredient is inulin, a polysaccaride (carbohydrate composed of many chains of simple sugars). Humans cannot digest inulin in its raw state, but cooking hydrolyzes most, if not all, the inulin into fructose (sugar) thus providing an available carbohydrate. Inulin-rich geophytes become very important in western North America to support increasing numbers of Native Americans.
Just read it, it explains it all.
As archaeologists we make routine use of maps at various scales throughout our work, and we learn to think spatially. To understand our PNW region, students will be able to locate the major NW cultural and linguistic groups on a map. Moss (2011) introduces the geographic and linguistic diversity of Native Americans, FN, and Alaska Native in the PNW. As students work through the readings, they should be able to place tribal groups on a map within the major linguistic groups.
Look in the google docs.
How does Moss describe the "reciprocal relationship" between people and fish. Find two other examples of reciprocal relationships between people and specific animals in Brown and Brown (2009)
Losey observed that because portions of intertidal fish traps were extremely durable, 'many generations of fish encountered them.' In this way, the fishing traps and weirs in the landscape mark the long-term reciprocal interdependence between human groups and populations of fish 'persons'. Like humans, fish are sentient beings who exercise agency, such as when fish give themselves to people. In return, people must reciprocate by treating the fish with respect, and maintaining and dismantling their 'house' and 'forts' at appropriate intervals.
In this excerpt from Boas's (1921) under the heading "Preservation of Food," we have multiple descriptions of how to prepare salmon, as recorded by George Hunt in the Kwakwala language. Much of the culinary knowledge Hunt recorded came from his wives (he re-married a Kwakwakw'wakw woman after his first Kwakwakw'wakw wife died). Read through these descriptions of 16 preparations and determine which involve: -cutting or butchery only -cutting/butchery and roasting or drying -boiling You may also look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaXZGdy3uO8 to see examples of fish butchered to dry. Are there preparations that fall outside these categories? Might some of them involve fermentation? Describe what this reveals about the specifics of cutting and butchery. Is the description sufficient for you to "do it yourself"? How might you identify one of these methods archaeologically? Do Hunt's illustrations help?
Major points: despite the fact that we think that stone boiling and earth oven baking was important on the NWC, Hunt doesn't record any explicit description of these as Kwakwakw'wakw cooking methods. Other observations: there's lots more attention to stored fish than fresh fish. Winter food includes "dried backbones and tails" (#4). The types of salmon don't match our salmon species... only terms that include species are dog salmon, silver salmon, and sockeye salmon. The Kwakwala categories of white salmon, old salmon, green salmon, green dry salmon and ugly salmon are somewhat obscure, although we know from #2 that "old salmon," is that which has finished spawning, and "white salmon" also means fish that are spawned out. "Ugly salmon" is mentioned in #15 which is an old, white sockeye (that ascended way up the river). Note that white salmon doesn't have to be roasted as long because it is not as fat (so it will dry faster and make good dried fish). This is very common in using ethnographic sources; sometimes emic categories are not self-evident. These were understood by Hunt's wife, and probably were understood by Hunt (maybe by Boas), but may not be clear to non-Native contemporary readers.
In Lab #8, did the deer bones break with a helical fracture as illustrated and described in Outram? Were the fractures smooth or rough? Can Outram's typology be used to distinguish bones broken for marrow or boiled for grease?
Maybe I'd know if I was in the lab...
How have USDA food guidelines changed over the past 50 years?
Minimum cups of dairy increased from 2 to 3 (low or nonfat milk, yogurt), only 5 oz of protein now, and 6 oz of grains. Servings of fruits/vegetables have stayed the same. Omega 3 and 7 fats are beneficial and less starchy foods are recommended.
Describe the prey-as-bait principle and how it relates t o traps used for herring.
Monks' "prey-as-bait" hypothesis relates to weirs/traps in that the prey concentrated in a trap, then becoming bait that attracts other animals. Herring is a common prey species used in this method. Deep Bay stone trap, used when the herring run in the spring- an example of a trap used for other than salmon. Rocks have been placed in two alignments dividing the area into the trap and the reservoir. When tide comes in, these areas are flooded. The southerly wall slowed the tide as the trap emptied (so more fish could be taken over a longer time period). Fish were probably collected at the exit point in the trap. Could be "herded" and dip-netted or raked. Herring are still taken from this trap. Trap is adjacent to preferred spawning bed of large herring population. See Monks, Greg 1987 "Prey as Bait: the Deep Bay example." Canadian Journal of Archaeology.
Describe how dietary choices in the U.S. have expanded over the last 50 years and how cooking technology has changed.
More fresh foods/packaged, Foods imported/available year round, Regional differences not as great, Globalization benefits the first world, Culinary innovation and fusion increased, Marketing and advertisements increased, advanced technology became common. Culture influenced kitchenware and a lot more variety.
Review the main principle of optimal foraging theory discussed in Moss (2016; I.e., prey rank based on body size). Contrast this with the principles of nutritional ecology. Explain why Moss (2016) refers to optimal foraging theory as "reductionist". Explain why herring are important to Alaska Natives beyond herring's dietary value.
Moss criticizes archaeological applications of optimal foraging theory as 'reductionist' when judging the value of a prey animal, she means that body size is not the only measure of importance, that nutritional value goes beyond calories or protein, that fats and trace minerals should be considered, and that what is judged 'optimal' may vary culturally. - Micronutrients should also be considered. Herring are referred to as a cultural keystone species because they affect the health of others (including humans) in the ecosystem. Herring provided a lot of nutrients: iron, copper, zinc - Herring eggs: selenium constituent of antioxidant enzymes and proteins, helps form DNA and prevents cell damage from free radicals
Define ethnographic analogy. Moss describes the perils and potential of archaeologists using ethnographic information to understand the deep past (prior to European contact, and the major colonial impacts during the 19th and 20th century). Identify the use of ethnographic analogies in the various archaeological readings in this Unit, and be prepared to understand some of the limitations used in ethnographic analogy.
Moss' (1993) article is entitled, Shellfish, Gender and Status on the Northwest Coast of North America: Reconciling Archaeological, Ethnographic and Ethnohistorical Records of the Tlingit. What is the contradiction between records that she is trying to reconcile? - Archaeological abundance of clams in shell middens vs. the lack of ethnographic info on shell-fishing. Moss argues that among the Tlingit, shellfish were a dietary staple. Boas' lack of ethnographic attention to Kwakwaka'wakw clam-digging and preparation is similar to what Moss (1993) found in Tlingit ethnographic reports. Ethnographers came from European/American/Candian societies with strict sexual divisions of labor, and missionaries and colonists saw such division in moral terms. Certain roles were "proper" or "appropriate" for women and others for men. *Scarcity of ethnographic information -Partly from androcentric bias -party from indigenous social and symbolic values *lack of attention to clams seems inconsistent with Kwakwaka'wakw clam terraces * No Kwakwaka'wakw dietary taboos for women or shamans like those of Tlingit *Boas did record information on poison and rotten clams Using Ethnography and Ethnohistory to interpret the archaeological record... * Ethnographic patterns can't be projected onto the past *Ethnographic patterns themselves are a product of historic change. IN the 19th century we see significant changes in material culture, population size and distribution, substitute of practices, social networks. * Ethnography can be biased * Ethnography and oral history can contain contradictory accounts * Not all sites were occupied into historic period * Environments have changed at multiple scales * First Nations, Native Americans and Alaska Natives all have different records, different social systems, different world views, etc. - Intellectual traditions of Native America/FN/Alaska Natives can help us interpret archaeological phenomena - Can shed light on "apparent" contradictions, unrecognized biases, change over "Instead of expecting corroboration between data sources, more attention could be focused on the gaps between sources and the meaning of these. This will help us sort out what may be the result off historic change or observer bias, and what may result from spatial, geographic, temporal, or cultural variability. In some cases, we may identify long-term patterns of cultural continuity that extend into the deep past, and in others we may find discontinuities."
Most of the diseases exchanged in the Columbian Exchange were from Old World to New World. Name these and identify the major disease that was introduced from New World to Old World.
New World to Old: Syphilis Old World to New: Smallpox, influenza, typhus, measles, malaria, whooping cough, Diphtheria
List 10 of the most important Old World domesticates that were introduced to the New World.
Olives, pigs, barley, soybeans, coffee, chickens, cattle, horses, grapes, rice, wheat, tea, yams, oats, sheep
Describe how studies reviewed by Pobiner (2016) alter the chronology set forth by Wrangham (2009) based on recent research
Pobiner states that the earliest evidence of human controlled fire was 1 mya (790,000 BP the first evidence of hearths). Gowlett & Wrangham argued that early fire & cooking go back 1.8 my. "Pobiner states that the first 'solid evidence' of human-controlled fire dates to 1 mya at Wonderwerk cave, South Africa. This would suggest that cooking by fire is more recent than suggested by Wrangham (2009)."
Deetz and Deetz explain that the myth of the pilgrims has three central themes (Forefathers, Plymouth Rock and the Compact), and that it didn't include Thanksgiving until the early 20th century. Reiterate the authors' explanation for the relatively 'late' addition of Thanksgiving to the myth of the Pilgrims.
Previous depictions of the event almost always involved conflict between settlers and the native people. - Once Western Indian Wars were over and the "vanishing red man" was happening satisfactory, there became an idyllic image of two cultures sitting down enjoying an autumn feast.
List the relief rations provided by the Department of Indian Affairs (in BC) to some tribal groups. Evaluate the nutritional differences between these rations and wild foods. Consider foods served in residential schools and what Kelm describes as "Euro-Canadian Culinary Imperialism".
Rations include: - 24 lb unenriched flour - 2 lb sugar - 1 lb each of baking powder, salt, tea - $2 worth of beef, pork, fish, bacon, beans - $1.20 worth of lard, rice, molasses and macaroni This unbalanced their diet and added unnecessary carbohydrates Food was used as a weapon, wild foods were unavailable
From Lab #3, how does the screen size used in recover affect the sample of archaeological material available to analyze? Why are small flakes useful archaeologically? How does using different screen sizes affect the recovery of archaeological food remains?
Screen size helps in differentiating flakes and weeding out the smallest of bits. The small flakes were useful in understanding what tools were being made because they come from the sharpest of edges Different screen sizes allows us to catch what we may have missed (the smaller things)
Refer back to Moss (2016) on the nutritional value of herring. Review Figure 6 and pp. 653-654 on the dietary significance of marine mammal oils. Recall Zimmer (2015). Review how the DPA in seal oil facilitates the metabolism of fatty fish.
Seal oil has three fatty acids in substantial quantities not present in the fish oils. Seal oil also has about 10 times the amount of DPA (docosapentaenoic acid) than the fish oils and DPA allows for faster and more thorough metabolism of healthful fatty acids. The common use of seal oil as a condiment in NW Coast diets apparently allows consumers to more effectively metabolize healthy fatty acids from fish.
Although shell-fishing is often considered an activity performed by women, children, and the elderly, summarize what Moss (1993) learned about shell-fishing from her male consultant, Richard Newton.
Shellfish were a dietary staple, but they contain paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) - "Despite his characterization of shellfish as 'just secondary,' when pressed for an analogous food in the modern Euro-American diet, Newton chose bread and butter-- a commonly eaten staple." - Richard Newton also explained that you would never invite people for dinner and just serve bread and butter
Look again at the illustrations in Black and Thoms and at http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/honey/ and http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/bowie/middenwhat.html . Make a list of all the tools you would need if you were to build an earth oven. Which components of an earth oven (heating elements, heating element remnants, oven pits, pit linings, carbon-staining, discarded fire-cracked rock, and borrow zones) were present in the fire built by Damion Sailors and Jason Younker at our "Tastings"? Which components were present in Damion's stone boiling lab? Which would be preserved into the future?
Shovel, medium to large igneous rocks, wood, green plant material (such as wet grass or prickly pear pads), the food, and then the earthen cap.
In an earlier essay, Suttles (1951) argues that potatoes were first introduced to the Salish region when the Hudson's Bay Company established Fort Langley near Vancouver in 1827. Describe how the potato compared to wild roots used by FNs. Describe the impacts of the introduction of the potato and other European food crops, referring back to Lecture 8 and Kelm (1998).
Sitka Tlingit provided wild foods and grew potatoes for the Russians. Garden rows at Tlingit village from growing potatoes etc.
Prior to Western contact with the Americas, Pacific Islanders navigating across the Pacific acquired the sweet potato from South America. This early example of the globalization of food pre=dates the Columbian Exchange.
Some other examples are chickens that were first domesticated in SE Asia that were in South America, facilitated by the Polynesians. Sweet potato domesticated in Ecuador/Peru c. 8000 BP pacific's 1200s
Black and Thoms (2014) use the term palimpsest several times. What is this and why is it useful to describe earth ovens and burned rock middens?
Something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form, which is an accurate description of the earth ovens and rock middens. In the slides, Palimpsest - a complicated mix of a sequence of features from different periods which are superimposed over each other.
Speth (2015) argues that direct boiling is more efficient than stone boiling and could pre-date FCR and TMR in the archaeological record by thousands of years. According to Speth (2015), why is wet-cooking important?
Speth argues that the introduction of wet-cooking represented another inflection point in the evolution of human culinary technology. Wet-cooking would have further expanded the range of edible plants. It would have also been particularly effective in deactivating spoilage enzymes such as pectinase and lipoxygenase; and leaching out or partially to completely deactivating anti-nutritional and taxi phytochemical such as saponins, tannins, flavonoids, alkaloids, trypsin inhibitors, oxalates, phytates, lectins, cyanogenic glycosides and many others. Most importantly, wet-cooking would have significantly increased the availability and digestibility of starches. Boiling would also have softened meats and many tough fibrous plant foods.
In addition to camas, name five (of 11) species of wild plants cultivated on the NW coast mentioned in Suttles (2005). These are still considered wild foods. How is camas precessed to make it edible? How are acorns processed to make them edible? Where in the NW were these foods economic staples?
Springbank Clover and Silverweed is not listed by Suttles as a wild plant cultivated by FN or Native Americans. Wild onions, camas, wild caraway, braken fern, wapato, bog cranberry, chocolate lily, and tiger lily are listed.
What is stone boiling? Why would people use this method of wet cooking?
Stone-boiling involves transfer of stones heated in a hearth to a vessel containing water and food. Stones used to hold & transfer heat. Stone-boiling is often used when the main cooking vessels are baskets or boxes that might burn in a fire. Cooking baskets & boxes on the NWC were waterproof.
Summarize Suttle's conclusion about whether Native American cultivation practices are truly 'aboriginal' or whether they reflect post-contact Euro-American-Candian influences including the introduction of the potato.
Suttles evaluates the evidence for and against aboriginal (pre-contact) origin of cultivation and gardening-like practices and concluded that some practices may have pre-contact origins, while others might result from Euro-American-Canadian practices.
Suttles assumed a gendered division of labor, I.e., that women dug camas and other root crops. Describe any information provided by Suttles regarding men's roles in the production of camas. Make a case for or against whether there is androcentric bias (like that described in Moss 1993) in the ethnographies used in Suttle's study.
Suttles wrote that 'women only did the digging' of camas, but that men helped with steaming.
Explain why Graesch et al. argue that the term "thermally modified rock" is more accurate than "fire-cracked rock." TMR is more inclusive; it includes not just "cracking," but discoloration, crazing, and pocking. What are these? TMR and FCR can result from the use of earth ovens or stone-boiling. Identify when TMR or FCR appear in the archaeological record according to Speth (2015). Identify when TMR/FCR become abundant.
TMR is more inclusive; it includes not just "cracking," but discoloration, crazing, and pocking. We use the term "crazing" to mean a macroscopically visible network of fine lines indicative of the cracking process but that have not resulted in complete breakage. A "pocked" surface exhibits visible, topographically irregular craters from which bits of rock outwardly exploded. We use the terms "fracture" and "crack" synonymously, and we intend both to mean that a rock broke into two or more pieces. C. Loring Brace in a string of influential papers published from the 1970s through the 1990s documented a noticeable reduction in Neanderthal molar size beginning perhaps as much as 100 kya, and attributed the trend to developments in human foodprocessing technologies, most especially to the advent of "earth oven" cooking FCR does not appear in more-than-negligible quantities until the Aurignacian, some 30-35 kya, and then gradually increases in frequency during the subsequent Gravettian and Magdalenian periods kya = thousands of years ago
Outline how the colonial histories of Alaska, BC, Washington, and Oregon differ from one another and how this impacts Indigenous people today.
Taking of native lands - Establishment of reservations in OR and WA (and reserves in B.C) - Prime real estate was taken for cities/settlers - Some indigenous groups were displaced from their homelands, making it hard for them to obtain traditional foods - Euro-americans, Euro-canadians pressured FN to raise domestic animals and farm - Access to fishing sites, hunting, trapping, and gathering territories declined [History] 1850 - Oregon Donation Act gives large tracts of land in WA and OR to non-Native settlers to any treaty negotiations. 1853 - U.S. Congress establishes Washington Territory; treaties of Medicine Creek, Point Elliott, Point No Point, and Neah Bay (19 reservations in western WA) 1854- 14 Vancouver Island tribes have treaties 1854-1855 Rogue River wars in OR 1855 Coast reservation established in OR 1857 - Grand Ronde Reservation established 1867 - U.S. purchases Alaska (social chaos until 1883) 1870s-1930s - Sizeable white settlements at Seattle, Tacoma, Port Townsend, Victoria, and Sitka 1870s-1930s - Native American children shipped off to boarding schools to "Americanize" them, run by Christian churches late 1870s -1882 Small Indian reserves established in B.C. 1871-1901 - 67 salmon annexes established in BC 1878 - 1st of many salmon canneries begin to operate in AK 1880s - Gold rush in Juneau, mines in Haines, up Stikine, Klawock, up Skeena; railroads completed to Vancouver and Tacoma; by late 1880s, large influx of tourists, cruise ships and curio collecting 1907 - Tongass National Forest Established 1912 - Alaska Native Brotherhood founded 1916 - 871 small Indian reserves scatted on the B.C. coast (treaties with 90 bands not included)
Recalling what you learned about taphonomy in Unit 1, describe how taphonomic processes might bias our assessment of the economic importance of shellfish in shell-bearing sites (also known as shell middens)
Taphonomic processes, both cultural and natural: Shell middens or shell-bearing sites are areas where people lived along saltwater shorelines and collected and consumed shellfish. Shell is deposited as just one of many constituents of living sites: charcoal, animal bones, burned plant remains, organically enriched soils, artifacts, etc. are all constituents of shell middens. Sometimes shell middens mark the exact spot place where people lived, and how remains can be identified. Sometime a house is built, and later becomes a dumping area for refuse. Other times shell middens represent the refuse area of a living site; that is, where people deposited their trash. Sometime shell is used as a building material, to fill in a low area of poor drainage. You can think of shell middens as a combination compost pile, garbage pit, or garage. Garages often store things people think they might use again and might serve a useful function. The amount of shell varies in a shell midden, sometimes shell appears to be very dense, other times it is scattered. This can represent different processes, shell can weather and dissolve in place over time. Shell is comprised of calcium carbonate, with a high pH, counteracting the natural acidity of forest soils on the NW coast. In places where people didn't consume shellfish or deposit shell, the chance of preservation of archaeological materials other than stone is rather low and the chance of detecting an archaeological site is also reduced. White shell makes sites visible in dark soils and helps preserve bone and bone artifacts. The remains of butchered carcasses (seals, sea lions, deer) deposited in a shell midden later can be 'mined' as a source of material for making bone tools.
How does study of taphonomy help us interpret the ancient archaeological material?
Taphonomy is the study of events and processes that affect the remains (bones) of organisms from the time of death until studied. It allows us to see cultural processes (like butchering and cooking), natural processes, like burial/decomposition, and excavation/recovery methods.
Summarize the composition of the group of people who participated in the "First Thanksgiving." Explain why Thanksgiving has been declared a National Day of Mourning by Native Americans (also consult United American Indians of New England webpage at www.uaine.org)
The Native Americans outnumbered the pilgrims 2 to 1. It's called the Day of Mourning because it markets the start of genocide of their race. Relentless assault on native culture, protest of racism and oppression.
Today, many US residents eat carbohydrate-rich diets that supply our energy needs. As described in Moss (2016), traditional Tlingit diets did not feature many carbohydrates, other than those provided by berries, roots, seaweed, or tree cambium. The author suggested that "...at least during some seasons of the year, Alaska Natives would rely on fats rather than carbohydrates to help their supply of energy needs". This is an inference that has not been proven. Read Zimmer (2015) about the genetic adaptation of Greenland Inuit. Formulate a hypothesis about the ability of Tlingit people to metabolize fat based on these ideas and findings.
The Tlingit people are most likely able to evolve a way to bring blood levels of fatty acids back into a healthy balance like the ancestors of the Inuit evolved unique genetic adaptations for metabolizing omega-3s and other fatty acids because of their heavy diet of whales, seals, and fish (with no other sources readily available). Similarly, the Tlingit also had a heavy marine diet and rare sources of the carbohydrates from their harsh climate conditions.
Explain how we can evaluate the contradictory evidence cited in Wranghman (2009) and Pobiner (2016). How was the recent research reviewed by Pobiner altered what we know?
The cause of cranial growth was due to smaller guts. Meat eating was easier to digest which doesn't require one to have a large gut, therefore saving energy for the brain.
Compare a modern human's digestive tract to that of a chimpanzee.
The design of the human digestive system is better explained as an adaptation to eating cooked food the nit is to eating raw meat. We have small mouths, weak jaws, small teeth, small stomachs, small colons, and small guts overall.
Describe the economic conditions that are influencing the North Pacific commercial herring fishery.
The sac roe fishery in BC and Alaska started hone the Japanese herring stocks collapsed. Herring went from the Ainu term (translated as 'godfish') to 'phantom fish'. Japanese overfished their local herring stocks that dropped precipitously by the 1960s and 1970s. Herring was especially important to the Ainu. Cultural anthropologist Shingo Hamada has documented dozens of place names on Hokkaido that incorporate the Ainu word for herring Today, there are two centers of commercial fishing for herring in Alaska: Sitka in SE AK and Togiak in SW AK. Herring are no longer fished in the summer and fall for their oil. Today, the focus of the fishery is on herring roe, b/c this is a delicacy that commands high prices in Japan and elsewhere in East Asia. Some observers have described the fishing around Stika as "combat fishing" because the competition is so fierce, with boats ramming each other to move in on the best place for herring. Some fisherman can make their annual income during 2-3 days working on a boat in Sitka.
Moss et. al (2011) describe the small size of herring bones and how fine-meshed screens are necessary to recover them from archaeological sites. Describe how common herring bones are across sites in SE Alaska.
The sizes are >quarter inch, <quarter inch scanned, <quarter inch 200 ml subsample Obviously, the time spent on the even smaller material showed how much was being lost through the screens. It demonstrated how much effort was necessary to extract these bones from the matrix. Obviously if fine-mesh screens are not used, herring bones will to be detected archaeologically.
What is a hearth and how does it differ from an earth oven? Why do Black and Thoms (2014) distinguish a hearth from an earth oven? What is a burned rock midden?
The term hearth is appropriately applied to relatively small surface features used for shortterm dry-heat cooking, warmth, and light that are ethnographically known from foraging societies worldwide. An earth oven is a layered cooking arrangement of fire, heated rocks(usually), food, green-plant packing materials, and sediment designed to bake food in moist heat at an even, relatively low temperature for periods of time ranging from a few hours to several days. (Most layers aren't easy to see archaeologically.) What we usually see: circular arrangement of closely spaced fire-cracked rocks. Hearths are prone to being ephemeral and do not survive the passage of time, whereas earth ovens do. Burned rock middens (BRM) are large mounded accumulations of fire-cracked cooking rocks and other debris generated by people using earth ovens. Within most middens, often near their centers, are remnants of what generations of archaeologists called hearths.
Frink and Giordano emphasize how the seal poke storage system involves expertise in making the seal poke and knowing how to use it. Describe 1) how a seal poke is made and 2) how the poke is used to store food. Explain why this storage system was important in the Arctic. How does food preparation in the high Arctic differ from that in the Pacific Northwest (think of available fuels).
The whole seal must be skinned through the mouth. Then the body is dragged out through the mouth, and of course a thick layer of fat is left sticking to the hide. Thus a good bag contains a considerable amount of blubber, which is just what is needed. After the insides are peeled away from the skin, the skin is then blown up "like a balloon" and left to dry. The Ainu (Ohnuki-Tierney) and Chukchee (Bogoras) in East and North Asia, respectively, both make use of seal skin and seal stomachs for the storage of meat. Making and using the bags to render the blubber and store the oil and other additive foods. Oil is super important!
Compare hominid morphological and anatomical developments suggesting a transition to a cooked diet as described by Gowlett and Wrangham (2013) to those described in Wrangham (2009).
There is a strong correlation between diet and cranial capacity. Cooking and animal plant domestication correlate with high cranial capacities while generalized diets correlate with low cranial capacity. This correlates with evidence of controlled fire as early as 790,000 ya (Wrangham and Gowlett think 1.5 mya) that goes with cranial capacity.
Name the three families of geophytes most commonly cooked in Native American earth ovens. Describe the seven layers in an idealized earth oven from bottom to top (Black and Thoms 2014). What are the advantages of cooking in an earth oven?
Three families of Geophytes most commonly cooked: Liliaceae - Lily family, Alliaceae - Onion family (onions), and Agavaceae - Agave family (agave, sotol). Camas is no longer grouped in the lily family; it's now in the asparagus family (Asparagaceae) Idealized Earth Oven (numbers go from bottom of oven to the top layer): 1. prepared surface oven pit 2. remains of ashes & coals from fire by the time oven is sealed 3. layer of red-hot rocks (heating element) 4. lower layer of green plant packing material 5. food 6. upper layer of green plant packing material 7. earthen cap
From various readings and Lab #3, explain how archaeologists distinguish different taphonomic signatures of butchery practices, bone breakage patterns, trampling, cooking, boiling, burning, and weathering. Is it always possible to distinguish these? If not, we can use the term equifinality to refer to how different processes may lead to what looks like the same outcome
Through assemblages and comparisons to modern examples of bones. It's not always possible to distinguish, but if not we can use equifinality to refer to how different processes may lead to what looks like the same outcome.
List 10 of the most important New World domesticates that were introduced to the Old World.
Tomato, maize, peanuts, Turkey, quinine, avocado, tobacco, squash sweet potato, guinea pig, beans, pumpkin, artichoke, sunflower, blueberry, chili pepper
Review Dow's deconstruction of the Myths of the First Thanksgiving. How do they relate particularly to foods of the Wampanoag and the relationships between the colonists from Britain and Wampanoag?
Wampanoag enjoyed a mix of wild & domesticated foods. Stuffing or dress -1) bread stuffing with pork sausage, onions, celery; 2) cornbread stuffing w/ onions, celery, etc. Dried fruits might have included grapes, strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries, plums Ask which of three utensils was NOT used in 1600s: fork. No archaeological data recovered by the Plymouth Plantation archaeologists date to the earliest colonial period; mostly they've studied 18th and 19th century sites. What we know of the first settlements in the 1600s comes from documentary data (as described by Deetz and Deetz). Party of 16 settlers "Found" corn (And a larger bushel of ten). They also dug up a several graves and took "pretty things". They didn't reimburse the indians. venison (since Massasoit and his people brought five deer), wild fowl, and quite possibly nasaump—dried corn pounded and boiled into a thick porridge,and pompion—cooked mashed pumpkin. Among the other food that would have been available, fresh fruits such as plums,grapes, berries and melons would have been out of season. It would have been too cold to dig for clams or fish for eels or small fish. There were no boats to fish for lobsters in rough water that was about 60 fathoms deep. There was not enough of the barley crop to make a batch of beer, nor was there a wheat crop. Potatoes and sweet potatoes didn't get from the south up to New England until the 18th century, nor did sweet corn.Cranberries would have been too tart to eat without sugar to Sweeten them, and that's probably why they wouldn't have had pumpkin pie,either. Since the corn of the time could not be successfully popped,there was no popcorn.
Revisit Learning outcome # 45 about the "reciprocal relatinships" between people and animals. Describe the reciprocal relationship between the Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth people and whales
Whaler believed that specific whale gave itself to him, through a mysterious power. Prayer and cleansing the mind and body made the whaler worthy of the great whale's gift of life. The whaler would not harpoon the first whale he saw, he would wait for the right one. He believed that the whale would give itself to the hunter who had been praying and who is clean.
From Kelm (1998) make a list of : 1) all the wild foods mentioned, and 2) all the imported foods mentioned
Wild Foods: Salmon, Sturgeon, Oolichan, Lamprey, Halibut, Herring, Smelt, Cod, Clam, Mussel, Crab, Oyster, Deer, Bear, Caribou, Mountain goat, Beaver, Otter, Raccoon, Elk Imported Foods: Potato, Cow, Flour, Baking powder, sugar, pork, rice, beans, team, molasses, macaroni, oats, tomatoes, peas, turnips, cabbage, yeast, lettuce, popcorn, pilot bread, onions, beets
Define "wild foods" vs. "domesticates"
Wild foods are genetically not modified, inhabit same original environment, identify as edible by a group of people and is available locally/culturally accepted. Domesticates are selective/bred fauna and flora. Fauna go through osteological changes while flora are subject to cross breeding to develop new plants.
Why are marine mammals important to Indigenous societies of the north? What food products do seals and sea lions provide? How were seals and sea lions hunted and processed?
Without oils from some of the animals, now matter how many fresh fish or fried fish they had, natives might have starved or become ill. Seals and sea lions provided oils and blubber as well as their skins. Seals were hunted in open water, at haul outs (on land or ice floes) or through the ice using spears, atlatl, harpoons, bow & arrows, club, nets, and now including rifles. Two processes in preparing. 1st method is of skinning a seal. The 2nd method is to open selected areas and pull the inner carcass out. If you are butchering a seal or sea lion to use its hide/skin in addition to using it for food, you butcher it differently than if you were only butchering for food. Sea lion skins are used over much of the north (Alutiiq, Aleut, Yupik, Inupiaq) to make kayak and umiaq coverings over wood frame boats.
Although Frink and Giordano focus on women's subsistence production, evaluate their descriptions to examine whether or not men are involved in making seal pokes. Explain if/how men participate.
Women are responsible for all of the processing, storage, and distribution of these essential resources. Generally men only do the hunting, but when the knife has gone all the way round and the skin is entirely free from the meat, comes the most tricky part of all: the entire body has to be pulled out through the mouth. As a rule, two men have to pull with all their might to manage this.
How did the experimental assemblage of TMR generated by Graesch et al. (2014) differ from the archaeological assemblage of TMR that they excavated at the site of Welqmex? What reasons do they suggest for this?
archaeological assemblage was most similar to experimental CGI (Coarse grained igneous) Graesch et al. suggest that trampling & chemical weathering resulted in more fragmentation in the arch. assemblage.
What are some of the activities that result in TMR?
cooking in an earth oven heating rocks in a hearth baking rocks to use in flint-knapping heating rocks for a sweat lodge, sauna stone-boiling building a fire for warmth burning down an old building
Describe what aboriginal cultivation practices would leave an archaeological signature which could be identified by material evidence on or in the ground.
marking with wood stakes, shallow ditches,s or lines of rocks
