The Eastern Subarctic has long been portrayed as a place without history. Challenging this perspe... more The Eastern Subarctic has long been portrayed as a place without history. Challenging this perspective, History in the Making: The Archaeology of the Eastern Subarctic charts the complex and dynamic history of this little known archaeological region of North America. Along the way, the book explores the social processes through which native peoples “made” history in the past and archaeologists and anthropologists later wrote about it. As such, the book offers both a critical history and historiography of the Eastern Subarctic.
The remains of hunter-gatherer groups are the most commonly discovered archaeological resources i... more The remains of hunter-gatherer groups are the most commonly discovered archaeological resources in the world, and their study constitutes much of the archaeological research done in North America. In spite of paradigm-shifting discoveries elsewhere in the world that may indicate that hunter-gatherer societies were more complex than simple remnants of a prehistoric past, North American archaeology by and large hasn't embraced these theories, instead maintaining its general neoevolutionary track. This book will change that.
Combining the latest empirical studies of archaeological practice with the latest conceptual tools of anthropological and historical theory, this volume seeks to set a new course for hunter-gatherer archaeology by organizing the chapters around three themes. The first section offers diverse views of the role of human agency, challenging the premise that hunter-gatherer societies were bound by their interactions with the natural world. The second section considers how society and culture are constituted. Chapters in the final section take the long view of the historical process, examining how cultural diversity arises out of interaction and the continuity of ritual practices.
A closing commentary by H. Martin Wobst underscores the promise of an archaeology of foragers that does not associate foraging with any particular ideology or social structure but instead invites inquiry into counterintuitive alternatives. Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology as Historical Process seeks to blur the divisions between prehistory and history, between primitive and modern, and between hunter-gatherers and people in other societies. Because it offers alternatives to the dominant discourse and contributes to the agenda of hunter-gatherer research, this book will be of interest to anyone involved in the study of foraging peoples.
We examine two concurrent trends in the later history of the Beothuk: changes to domestic archite... more We examine two concurrent trends in the later history of the Beothuk: changes to domestic architecture and household composition, and the narrowing of sharing obligations. The former is evident in the emergence and growth of pithouses and households, and the latter, in the partitioning of resources and the elaboration of food storage strategies. Both occur as European settlement and hostilities intensify and the Beothuk are denied access to coastal resources. These shifts may be reflective of social strategies aimed at incorporating extended family members and others from shattered homes, as well as cultural adjustments to increased sedentism and structural changes in the subsistence economy. These developments illustrate how hunter-gatherer domestic architecture can track with changes to the social environment.
The transition between the end of the Maritime Archaic and the so-called Intermediate Indian peri... more The transition between the end of the Maritime Archaic and the so-called Intermediate Indian period on the island of Newfoundland and Labrador was marked by significant changes in just about all dimensions of life for First Nations peoples living in the region at the time: cemeteries stop being used, longhouses are no longer erected, an exquisite ground-stone-tool technological tradition comes to an end, long-distance exchange networks contract, and vast areas of the region are abandoned. These changes, which coincide with a relative reduction in the number of archaeological site components, a contraction in land-use area, a detrimental shift in settlement strategy, and a steep decline in radiocarbon dates suggest that a demographic collapse put an end to the Archaic period on the island of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Stock Cove site (CkAl-3) is a large, deeply stratified, multicomponent site located in southe... more The Stock Cove site (CkAl-3) is a large, deeply stratified, multicomponent site located in southeastern Newfoundland. The richest strata at the site, which have yielded thousands of artifacts and multiple overlapping house features, provide evidence of a substantial Dorset presence. Earlier researchers proposed that the Stock Cove site additionally contained the Province’s only Dorset longhouse, which this paper disputes. The high frequency of sea-mammal hunting implements and identified faunal remains, as well as the site’s location, all suggest that coastal and marine resources figured prominently in the Dorset’s food economy at Stock Cove. Faunal remains further suggest that the biogeography of the region when the Dorset were living at the site, particularly the distribution of migratory harp seals, may have differed significantly from historical distributions. The recovery of harp seal remains on the site has broad implications for understanding Dorset colonization and abandonment of the island, as well as the appropriateness of using historical biogeographic data to interpret prehistoric economies.
The archaeology of hunters and gatherers has long focused on the economic and technological dimen... more The archaeology of hunters and gatherers has long focused on the economic and technological dimensions of food use and procurement. In marginal environments especially, hunter-gatherer food use has often been situated within an adaptationist calculus of survival and environmental accommodation. The ethnographic record of hunter-gatherers that inhabited such environments, however, indicate that social and cultural considerations also critically informed indigenous peoples’ procurement, consumption, and discard practices. Drawing on the later prehistoric and early historic archaeological record of the island of Newfoundland, in northeastern Canada, this paper explores how the procurement, consumption, and handling of subarctic foods conveyed identity, reflected historical conditions and social relations, factored into ritual and ceremonial practice, and embodied worldviews.
Anthropologists have long been interested in understanding how societies cope with risk and uncer... more Anthropologists have long been interested in understanding how societies cope with risk and uncertainty in their subsistence economies. The topic has been of particular interest to the study of hunters and gatherers, where risk and uncertainty are often conceptualized as problems of the natural rather than social environment. This paper focuses on an archaeological site located in the interior of the island of Newfoundland that was inhabited by Amerindian people hunting caribou in the spring of the year, presumably because they were having difficulty procuring marine resources at the coast. The plight of these Amerindians, at a time when they were sharing the island with Paleo-Inuit peoples and climate change was undermining islanders’ access to critical marine resources, highlights the complex play between cultural adaptation, social and historical processes, and the natural environment.
Journeys: The International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing, 2016
For most people, travel writing is ethnography. Whereas few will ever read anything written by a ... more For most people, travel writing is ethnography. Whereas few will ever read anything written by a professional anthropologist, travel literature is widely read and popular. Consequently, the public has come to trust journalists, travelers, and other writers for accurate information about indigenous peoples, Culture, and other subjects that have long been the purview of anthropologists. In this context, travel writing plays a critical role in how the public imagines and understands the Other. This article surveys common themes and popular representations of that ultimate Other—hunters and gatherers—as penned in twentieth and early twenty-first century travel literature. In particular, the article focuses on the trope of self-discovery, a literary device in which the author's encounters with foraging peoples—often portrayed as remnants of the original human society—serve as a mirror in which the author reflects on their self, and writ large, modernity. Anthropology has had a long and uneasy relationship with the travel writing genre. In the earliest days of the discipline anthropology was a kind of travel writing, and then later, travel accounts formed the basis of much of the ethnographic record that armchair anthropologists relied on for their
Foster, Gary S., William E. Lovekamp and Donald H. Holly, Jr. 2016. “The Old Kelley Cemetery: A C... more Foster, Gary S., William E. Lovekamp and Donald H. Holly, Jr. 2016. “The Old Kelley Cemetery: A Cold Case of Grave Concern.” Association of Gravestone Studies Quarterly 41(2):3-9.
In April of 2014, a gravestone fragment was found in a remote wooded area of Fox Ridge State Park located south of Charleston, Illinois. The fragment came from a cemetery three miles north of the find location. Because the gravestone was more than 100 years old and because it was found on state (public) property, appropriate authorities (Illinois Historic Preservation Agency/State Comptroller’s Office) were notified in an attempt to properly return the gravestone to its original location, the Old Kelley Cemetery, the oldest historic cemetery in Coles County, Illinois. The first burial occurred there in 1825, five years before the county was created. A visit to the cemetery after the discovery of the gravestone fragment determined that virtually all of the original engraved gravestones had been removed without authorization, and thus, stolen.
Introduction to a special book review section on pseudo-archaeology for the journal American Anti... more Introduction to a special book review section on pseudo-archaeology for the journal American Antiquity. See American Antiquity 80(3):615-629 (2015) for full set of reviews.
The Indigenous Beothuk of Newfoundland disappeared as a cultural entity in the early nineteenth c... more The Indigenous Beothuk of Newfoundland disappeared as a cultural entity in the early nineteenth century. Prior to this, the Beothuk had few direct interactions with Europeans, and those that occurred were generally of a hostile nature. As a result, very little is known about Beothuk religious life. Drawing on available ethnohistoric records, an analysis of burial site locations and funerary objects, we offer an interpretation of Beothuk sacred cosmology that places birds at the centre of their belief system.
The Eastern Subarctic has long been portrayed as a place without history. Challenging this perspe... more The Eastern Subarctic has long been portrayed as a place without history. Challenging this perspective, History in the Making: The Archaeology of the Eastern Subarctic charts the complex and dynamic history of this little known archaeological region of North America. Along the way, the book explores the social processes through which native peoples “made” history in the past and archaeologists and anthropologists later wrote about it. As such, the book offers both a critical history and historiography of the Eastern Subarctic.
The remains of hunter-gatherer groups are the most commonly discovered archaeological resources i... more The remains of hunter-gatherer groups are the most commonly discovered archaeological resources in the world, and their study constitutes much of the archaeological research done in North America. In spite of paradigm-shifting discoveries elsewhere in the world that may indicate that hunter-gatherer societies were more complex than simple remnants of a prehistoric past, North American archaeology by and large hasn't embraced these theories, instead maintaining its general neoevolutionary track. This book will change that.
Combining the latest empirical studies of archaeological practice with the latest conceptual tools of anthropological and historical theory, this volume seeks to set a new course for hunter-gatherer archaeology by organizing the chapters around three themes. The first section offers diverse views of the role of human agency, challenging the premise that hunter-gatherer societies were bound by their interactions with the natural world. The second section considers how society and culture are constituted. Chapters in the final section take the long view of the historical process, examining how cultural diversity arises out of interaction and the continuity of ritual practices.
A closing commentary by H. Martin Wobst underscores the promise of an archaeology of foragers that does not associate foraging with any particular ideology or social structure but instead invites inquiry into counterintuitive alternatives. Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology as Historical Process seeks to blur the divisions between prehistory and history, between primitive and modern, and between hunter-gatherers and people in other societies. Because it offers alternatives to the dominant discourse and contributes to the agenda of hunter-gatherer research, this book will be of interest to anyone involved in the study of foraging peoples.
We examine two concurrent trends in the later history of the Beothuk: changes to domestic archite... more We examine two concurrent trends in the later history of the Beothuk: changes to domestic architecture and household composition, and the narrowing of sharing obligations. The former is evident in the emergence and growth of pithouses and households, and the latter, in the partitioning of resources and the elaboration of food storage strategies. Both occur as European settlement and hostilities intensify and the Beothuk are denied access to coastal resources. These shifts may be reflective of social strategies aimed at incorporating extended family members and others from shattered homes, as well as cultural adjustments to increased sedentism and structural changes in the subsistence economy. These developments illustrate how hunter-gatherer domestic architecture can track with changes to the social environment.
The transition between the end of the Maritime Archaic and the so-called Intermediate Indian peri... more The transition between the end of the Maritime Archaic and the so-called Intermediate Indian period on the island of Newfoundland and Labrador was marked by significant changes in just about all dimensions of life for First Nations peoples living in the region at the time: cemeteries stop being used, longhouses are no longer erected, an exquisite ground-stone-tool technological tradition comes to an end, long-distance exchange networks contract, and vast areas of the region are abandoned. These changes, which coincide with a relative reduction in the number of archaeological site components, a contraction in land-use area, a detrimental shift in settlement strategy, and a steep decline in radiocarbon dates suggest that a demographic collapse put an end to the Archaic period on the island of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Stock Cove site (CkAl-3) is a large, deeply stratified, multicomponent site located in southe... more The Stock Cove site (CkAl-3) is a large, deeply stratified, multicomponent site located in southeastern Newfoundland. The richest strata at the site, which have yielded thousands of artifacts and multiple overlapping house features, provide evidence of a substantial Dorset presence. Earlier researchers proposed that the Stock Cove site additionally contained the Province’s only Dorset longhouse, which this paper disputes. The high frequency of sea-mammal hunting implements and identified faunal remains, as well as the site’s location, all suggest that coastal and marine resources figured prominently in the Dorset’s food economy at Stock Cove. Faunal remains further suggest that the biogeography of the region when the Dorset were living at the site, particularly the distribution of migratory harp seals, may have differed significantly from historical distributions. The recovery of harp seal remains on the site has broad implications for understanding Dorset colonization and abandonment of the island, as well as the appropriateness of using historical biogeographic data to interpret prehistoric economies.
The archaeology of hunters and gatherers has long focused on the economic and technological dimen... more The archaeology of hunters and gatherers has long focused on the economic and technological dimensions of food use and procurement. In marginal environments especially, hunter-gatherer food use has often been situated within an adaptationist calculus of survival and environmental accommodation. The ethnographic record of hunter-gatherers that inhabited such environments, however, indicate that social and cultural considerations also critically informed indigenous peoples’ procurement, consumption, and discard practices. Drawing on the later prehistoric and early historic archaeological record of the island of Newfoundland, in northeastern Canada, this paper explores how the procurement, consumption, and handling of subarctic foods conveyed identity, reflected historical conditions and social relations, factored into ritual and ceremonial practice, and embodied worldviews.
Anthropologists have long been interested in understanding how societies cope with risk and uncer... more Anthropologists have long been interested in understanding how societies cope with risk and uncertainty in their subsistence economies. The topic has been of particular interest to the study of hunters and gatherers, where risk and uncertainty are often conceptualized as problems of the natural rather than social environment. This paper focuses on an archaeological site located in the interior of the island of Newfoundland that was inhabited by Amerindian people hunting caribou in the spring of the year, presumably because they were having difficulty procuring marine resources at the coast. The plight of these Amerindians, at a time when they were sharing the island with Paleo-Inuit peoples and climate change was undermining islanders’ access to critical marine resources, highlights the complex play between cultural adaptation, social and historical processes, and the natural environment.
Journeys: The International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing, 2016
For most people, travel writing is ethnography. Whereas few will ever read anything written by a ... more For most people, travel writing is ethnography. Whereas few will ever read anything written by a professional anthropologist, travel literature is widely read and popular. Consequently, the public has come to trust journalists, travelers, and other writers for accurate information about indigenous peoples, Culture, and other subjects that have long been the purview of anthropologists. In this context, travel writing plays a critical role in how the public imagines and understands the Other. This article surveys common themes and popular representations of that ultimate Other—hunters and gatherers—as penned in twentieth and early twenty-first century travel literature. In particular, the article focuses on the trope of self-discovery, a literary device in which the author's encounters with foraging peoples—often portrayed as remnants of the original human society—serve as a mirror in which the author reflects on their self, and writ large, modernity. Anthropology has had a long and uneasy relationship with the travel writing genre. In the earliest days of the discipline anthropology was a kind of travel writing, and then later, travel accounts formed the basis of much of the ethnographic record that armchair anthropologists relied on for their
Foster, Gary S., William E. Lovekamp and Donald H. Holly, Jr. 2016. “The Old Kelley Cemetery: A C... more Foster, Gary S., William E. Lovekamp and Donald H. Holly, Jr. 2016. “The Old Kelley Cemetery: A Cold Case of Grave Concern.” Association of Gravestone Studies Quarterly 41(2):3-9.
In April of 2014, a gravestone fragment was found in a remote wooded area of Fox Ridge State Park located south of Charleston, Illinois. The fragment came from a cemetery three miles north of the find location. Because the gravestone was more than 100 years old and because it was found on state (public) property, appropriate authorities (Illinois Historic Preservation Agency/State Comptroller’s Office) were notified in an attempt to properly return the gravestone to its original location, the Old Kelley Cemetery, the oldest historic cemetery in Coles County, Illinois. The first burial occurred there in 1825, five years before the county was created. A visit to the cemetery after the discovery of the gravestone fragment determined that virtually all of the original engraved gravestones had been removed without authorization, and thus, stolen.
Introduction to a special book review section on pseudo-archaeology for the journal American Anti... more Introduction to a special book review section on pseudo-archaeology for the journal American Antiquity. See American Antiquity 80(3):615-629 (2015) for full set of reviews.
The Indigenous Beothuk of Newfoundland disappeared as a cultural entity in the early nineteenth c... more The Indigenous Beothuk of Newfoundland disappeared as a cultural entity in the early nineteenth century. Prior to this, the Beothuk had few direct interactions with Europeans, and those that occurred were generally of a hostile nature. As a result, very little is known about Beothuk religious life. Drawing on available ethnohistoric records, an analysis of burial site locations and funerary objects, we offer an interpretation of Beothuk sacred cosmology that places birds at the centre of their belief system.
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Combining the latest empirical studies of archaeological practice with the latest conceptual tools of anthropological and historical theory, this volume seeks to set a new course for hunter-gatherer archaeology by organizing the chapters around three themes. The first section offers diverse views of the role of human agency, challenging the premise that hunter-gatherer societies were bound by their interactions with the natural world. The second section considers how society and culture are constituted. Chapters in the final section take the long view of the historical process, examining how cultural diversity arises out of interaction and the continuity of ritual practices.
A closing commentary by H. Martin Wobst underscores the promise of an archaeology of foragers that does not associate foraging with any particular ideology or social structure but instead invites inquiry into counterintuitive alternatives. Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology as Historical Process seeks to blur the divisions between prehistory and history, between primitive and modern, and between hunter-gatherers and people in other societies. Because it offers alternatives to the dominant discourse and contributes to the agenda of hunter-gatherer research, this book will be of interest to anyone involved in the study of foraging peoples.
In April of 2014, a gravestone fragment was found in a remote wooded area of Fox Ridge State Park located south of Charleston, Illinois. The fragment came from a cemetery three miles north of the find location. Because the gravestone was more than 100 years old and because it was found on state (public) property, appropriate authorities (Illinois Historic Preservation Agency/State Comptroller’s Office) were notified in an attempt to properly return the gravestone to its original location, the Old Kelley Cemetery, the oldest historic cemetery in Coles County, Illinois. The first burial occurred there in 1825, five years before the county was created. A visit to the cemetery after the discovery of the gravestone fragment determined that virtually all of the original engraved gravestones had been removed without authorization, and thus, stolen.
Combining the latest empirical studies of archaeological practice with the latest conceptual tools of anthropological and historical theory, this volume seeks to set a new course for hunter-gatherer archaeology by organizing the chapters around three themes. The first section offers diverse views of the role of human agency, challenging the premise that hunter-gatherer societies were bound by their interactions with the natural world. The second section considers how society and culture are constituted. Chapters in the final section take the long view of the historical process, examining how cultural diversity arises out of interaction and the continuity of ritual practices.
A closing commentary by H. Martin Wobst underscores the promise of an archaeology of foragers that does not associate foraging with any particular ideology or social structure but instead invites inquiry into counterintuitive alternatives. Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology as Historical Process seeks to blur the divisions between prehistory and history, between primitive and modern, and between hunter-gatherers and people in other societies. Because it offers alternatives to the dominant discourse and contributes to the agenda of hunter-gatherer research, this book will be of interest to anyone involved in the study of foraging peoples.
In April of 2014, a gravestone fragment was found in a remote wooded area of Fox Ridge State Park located south of Charleston, Illinois. The fragment came from a cemetery three miles north of the find location. Because the gravestone was more than 100 years old and because it was found on state (public) property, appropriate authorities (Illinois Historic Preservation Agency/State Comptroller’s Office) were notified in an attempt to properly return the gravestone to its original location, the Old Kelley Cemetery, the oldest historic cemetery in Coles County, Illinois. The first burial occurred there in 1825, five years before the county was created. A visit to the cemetery after the discovery of the gravestone fragment determined that virtually all of the original engraved gravestones had been removed without authorization, and thus, stolen.