Coming into the Country: Early Paleoindian Hunting and Mobility
Hunter-gatherer adaptations to long-term fluctuations in regional resource structure require mechanisms to cope with periodic subsistence stresses. Among documented groups, a common response to such stress is temporary movement into adjacent occupied areas-moving in with "relatives" when t...
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Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
1988
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/281017 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0002731600070724 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.2307/281017 2024-09-09T19:25:56+00:00 Coming into the Country: Early Paleoindian Hunting and Mobility Kelly, Robert L. Todd, Lawrence C. 1988 http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/281017 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0002731600070724 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms American Antiquity volume 53, issue 2, page 231-244 ISSN 0002-7316 2325-5064 journal-article 1988 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.2307/281017 2024-08-28T04:03:13Z Hunter-gatherer adaptations to long-term fluctuations in regional resource structure require mechanisms to cope with periodic subsistence stresses. Among documented groups, a common response to such stress is temporary movement into adjacent occupied areas-moving in with "relatives" when things go wrong. However, in the case of early (ca. 12,000-10,000 B.P.) Paleoindian groups in the Americas, the availability of neighboring groups with a detailed knowledge of local resource geography could not be relied upon. Post-Pleistocene environmental changes and the low initial population of the New World are important factors conditioning a lifeway characterized by a dependence on hunting (though not exclusively of megafauna), and by high residential, logistical, and range (territorial) mobility. Early Paleoindian groups had to adopt a subsistence technology that could be employed regardless of the specific resource microstructure. In some regards, Paleoindians seem to have behaved like tropical foragers while in others like arctic collectors. Use of high quality lithic raw materials from large quarry sources, reliance on a bifacial technology, limited use of caves and rockshelters, and a low level of processing of food products for storage all may be indicative of such a subsistence technology, which would have been unlike that of any modern hunter-gatherers. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Cambridge University Press Arctic American Antiquity 53 2 231 244 |
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Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
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crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
description |
Hunter-gatherer adaptations to long-term fluctuations in regional resource structure require mechanisms to cope with periodic subsistence stresses. Among documented groups, a common response to such stress is temporary movement into adjacent occupied areas-moving in with "relatives" when things go wrong. However, in the case of early (ca. 12,000-10,000 B.P.) Paleoindian groups in the Americas, the availability of neighboring groups with a detailed knowledge of local resource geography could not be relied upon. Post-Pleistocene environmental changes and the low initial population of the New World are important factors conditioning a lifeway characterized by a dependence on hunting (though not exclusively of megafauna), and by high residential, logistical, and range (territorial) mobility. Early Paleoindian groups had to adopt a subsistence technology that could be employed regardless of the specific resource microstructure. In some regards, Paleoindians seem to have behaved like tropical foragers while in others like arctic collectors. Use of high quality lithic raw materials from large quarry sources, reliance on a bifacial technology, limited use of caves and rockshelters, and a low level of processing of food products for storage all may be indicative of such a subsistence technology, which would have been unlike that of any modern hunter-gatherers. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kelly, Robert L. Todd, Lawrence C. |
spellingShingle |
Kelly, Robert L. Todd, Lawrence C. Coming into the Country: Early Paleoindian Hunting and Mobility |
author_facet |
Kelly, Robert L. Todd, Lawrence C. |
author_sort |
Kelly, Robert L. |
title |
Coming into the Country: Early Paleoindian Hunting and Mobility |
title_short |
Coming into the Country: Early Paleoindian Hunting and Mobility |
title_full |
Coming into the Country: Early Paleoindian Hunting and Mobility |
title_fullStr |
Coming into the Country: Early Paleoindian Hunting and Mobility |
title_full_unstemmed |
Coming into the Country: Early Paleoindian Hunting and Mobility |
title_sort |
coming into the country: early paleoindian hunting and mobility |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
1988 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/281017 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0002731600070724 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
American Antiquity volume 53, issue 2, page 231-244 ISSN 0002-7316 2325-5064 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.2307/281017 |
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American Antiquity |
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53 |
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2 |
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231 |
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244 |
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