| Summary: | Several levels of central places are described in relation to local bands, regional bands and tribes. Various levels of social and economic structure have a corresponding central place- the winter village or ritual places for bands and tribes. Local centres like winter villages supported subsistence redistribution and possessed various resources. Centres between bands and tribes are rich in resources during a limited time and help to exploit marginal resources. From an ecological point of view one can predict where optimal central places are located when economic structure and land use patterns are known. Rivers and eskers, as means of communication, are important determinants. Watershed areas, as means of conceptualizing land areas, can be used to estimate boreal forest hunters' land divisions in household units, similar to the historically known forest Saami household land use units (lappskatteland). In Åsele Lappmark several clusters of settlements have been recorded mainly indicating winter central places or base camps. Through the period 6000 BP to 500 BP different migration models have been applied to the cluster pattern revealing how the pattern has evolved.
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