Agency and politics in hunter-gatherer territory formation

Zedeño, María Nieves; Anderson, Derek

doi:10.24885/sab.v23i1.285

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…However, along the southern Alberta-Montana foothills, the high density of surface stone features and bone beds on primary and secondary watersheds indicates that this landscape was colonized and entrenched by people who shared a cultural logic and a distinctive tradition of landscape engineering. This time-averaged archaeological record was cumulatively shaped through persistence or place reuse and repeated movement across pathways that connected sacred sites, living areas, resource locales, and other meaningful places (Dooley 2004;Oetelaar 2006;Oetelaar and Meyer 2006;Zedeño and Anderson 2010). Movement, in turn, reified tradition and at the same time expressed rising processes of differentiation.…”

Section: Toward a New Vision Of Pedestrian Big-game Huntersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape Engineering and Organizational Complexity among Late Prehistoric Bison Hunters of the Northwestern Plains

Zedeño¹,

Ballenger²,

Murray³

2014

Current Anthropology

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Studies of hunter-gatherer sociopolitical organization consistently exclude terrestrial big-game hunters-pedestrian bison hunters, in particular-from discussions of emerging complexity. To an important extent, this exclusion stems both from the ethology of bison and its consequences for mobile hunters and from the character of their archaeological record, which lacks conventional indicators of organizational complexity such as high-status burials and long-term storage facilities. However, this record exhibits stone architecture of monumental proportions. We argue that evidence of emerging sociopolitical complexity is embodied in the hunters' ability to (1) invest extensively on landscape engineering to amass communal bison wealth for consumption, storage, and exchange, and (2) produce and reproduce ritual wealth among individuals and restricted sectors of the group. Through a multiscalar research design that integrates thousands of surface stone features with data recovered from kill site excavation, ethnohistorical records, and Blackfoot traditions, we demonstrate that Late Prehistoric bison hunters of the northwestern Plains endeavored to create conditions for permanence in their hunting territory by strategically emplacing and maintaining hunting facilities. These, in turn, would be used by ensuing generations of culturally related groups for whom the communal hunt was a formal and ritually managed act. The Pikunis were rich; meat was their staff of life, and they had plenty of it. (James Willard Schultz, Blackfeet and Buffalo [1962:30]) Pedestrian bison hunters of the North American Plains have been conventionally categorized as highly mobile, egalitarian bands whose lives and annual schedules were tethered to the behavior and environment of their resource (e.g., Binford 2001:226; Oliver 1962; Wheat 1972). On the surface, it may seem a fitting portrayal of ancient terrestrial big-game hunters but does not explain the full range of variability in their trajectories and organization. Narrowly focused on behavior and technology, this categorization excludes the existence of

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Section: Toward a New Vision Of Pedestrian Big-game Huntersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape Engineering and Organizational Complexity among Late Prehistoric Bison Hunters of the Northwestern Plains

Zedeño¹,

Ballenger²,

Murray³

2014

Current Anthropology

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“…Existe abundante bibliografía arqueológica y etnográfica sobre territorialidad en grupos cazadores-recolectores (e.g. Peterson, 1975;Dyson-Hudson y Smith, 1978;Layton, 1986;Barnard, 1992;Hitchcok y Bartram, 1998;Zedeño, 1997Zedeño, , 2008Zedeño y Anderson, 2010). En este trabajo, retomamos la propuesta elaborada por Zedeño (1997Zedeño ( , 2008 y Zedeño y Anderson (2010) quienes definen territorialidad como la suma de acciones, emociones yagregamos-concepciones (ideas, valores, saberes), sobre un espacio específico -con énfasis en su control y acceso diferencial 3 -que se materializan en la conformación de un territorio.…”

Section: Arte Rupestre Y Territorialidadunclassified

“…En este trabajo, retomamos la propuesta elaborada por Zedeño (1997Zedeño ( , 2008 y Zedeño y Anderson (2010) quienes definen territorialidad como la suma de acciones, emociones yagregamos-concepciones (ideas, valores, saberes), sobre un espacio específico -con énfasis en su control y acceso diferencial 3 -que se materializan en la conformación de un territorio. Un territorio es un espacio delimitado social, económica, política y simbólicamente, a partir de dichas acciones, emociones y concepciones, que incluyen rasgos topográficos, recursos naturales y manufacturas humanas (Zedeño, 1997(Zedeño, , 2008Zedeño y Anderson, 2010).…”

Section: Arte Rupestre Y Territorialidadunclassified

“…Sostenemos como premisa teórica que la territorialidad es visible arqueológicamente en las características materiales de los territorios (Zedeño, 1997(Zedeño, , 2008Zedeño y Anderson, 2010). De esta manera, para poder atribuir al arte rupestre de Corcovo 2 un rol potencial como indicador/demarcador de territorialidad, será necesario demostrar que: a) reúne las condiciones necesarias para ello (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

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El arte rupestre de Corcovo 2 y la producción de motivos cefalomorfos-mascariformes en el sur de Mendoza (Argentina): un abordaje desde el concepto de territorialidad

Acevedo,

Fiore,

Tucker

et al. 2023

Rev. Mus. Antrop.

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Se presenta una caracterización detallada del arte rupestre del sitio Corcovo 2 (sur de Mendoza, Argentina), un conjunto de bloques grabados que destaca por la elevada frecuencia de motivos cefalomorfos-mascariformes. Estos motivos cuentan en la región con un corpus de información poco explorado y fragmentario. En cambio, en regiones cercanas (e.g. Tandilia y Ventania), donde han sido sistemáticamente estudiados, se los ha vinculado a prácticas de control territorial. Para evaluar esta hipótesis, en la región bajo estudio, se combina la información que registramos en Corcovo 2 con la disponible para los motivos cefalomorfos-mascariformes de todo el sur de Mendoza. Los resultados obtenidos muestran vínculos entre sitios con motivos cefalomorfos-mascariformes y espacios con características determinadas que permiten pensar en la existencia de prácticas de demarcación territorial propiciadas por los grandes cambios económicos y sociales ocurridos en la región durante los últimos 2000 años de ocupación humana.

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“…Within mobile societies, these changes may subsequently place different values on variables required for habitation, as well as the timing and frequency of movements (Binford 1982). Because the principles organizing a group's relationship to the landscape may differ significantly cross-culturally, we can address models of settlement and mobility from a perspective that is “uniquely tailored to their land use patterns, social networks, and political agencies” (Zedeño and Anderson 2010:10).…”

Section: Blackfoot Land Use Systems From the Precontact To The Contacmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Archaeology of Pastoralist Landscapes in the Northwestern Plains

Bethke¹

2017

Am. Antiq.

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This article examines the extent to which the adoption of the horse created a transition in modes of production from hunting and gathering to nomadic pastoralism by tracing the horse's impact on Blackfoot settlement patterns and landscape use during the Precontact and Postcontact periods on the Northwestern Plains. While changes in hunting techniques, raiding frequencies, and certain social implications such as status and wealth differentiation have been studied from an ethnohistoric perspective, less work has been done to trace the subtle changes to patterns of landscape use that may have directly resulted from the adoption of horse husbandry by the Blackfoot people. This study applies Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology to broadly distributed Precontact- and Contact-period archaeological sites of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Montana to reveal the role of horse husbandry on landscape use in the Northwestern Plains. This research expands on previous ethnohistorical work, while also contributing a new, material dimension to the dynamics of this transition at various spatial scales.

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Agency and politics in hunter-gatherer territory formation

Cited by 13 publications

References 71 publications

Landscape Engineering and Organizational Complexity among Late Prehistoric Bison Hunters of the Northwestern Plains

Landscape Engineering and Organizational Complexity among Late Prehistoric Bison Hunters of the Northwestern Plains

El arte rupestre de Corcovo 2 y la producción de motivos cefalomorfos-mascariformes en el sur de Mendoza (Argentina): un abordaje desde el concepto de territorialidad

The Archaeology of Pastoralist Landscapes in the Northwestern Plains

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