COMMUNAL HUNTS, HUMAN AGGREGATIONS, SOCIAL VARIATION, AND CLIMATIC CHANGE: BISON UTILIZATION BY PREHISTORIC INHABITANTS OF THE GREAT PLAINS

Some anthropologists have argued that communal hunts played an important role in the evolution of hominids. Variation in the frequency and timing of bison hunts on the Great Plains has been explained with the Annual, Vore, and Fat Depletion Models. According to the Annual Model, hunts were organized...

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Main Author: FAWCETT, WILLIAM BLOYS
Language:ENG
Published: ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst 1987
Subjects:
Online Access:https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI8710451
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spelling ndltd-UMASS-oai-scholarworks.umass.edu-dissertations-11682020-12-02T14:27:35Z COMMUNAL HUNTS, HUMAN AGGREGATIONS, SOCIAL VARIATION, AND CLIMATIC CHANGE: BISON UTILIZATION BY PREHISTORIC INHABITANTS OF THE GREAT PLAINS FAWCETT, WILLIAM BLOYS Some anthropologists have argued that communal hunts played an important role in the evolution of hominids. Variation in the frequency and timing of bison hunts on the Great Plains has been explained with the Annual, Vore, and Fat Depletion Models. According to the Annual Model, hunts were organized in the fall to obtain stores of meat for consumption during the winter. The Vore Model refines the Annual Model by proposing that larger and more frequent bison kills occurred during periods with higher precipitation, better grazing conditions, and greater numbers of bison. Different animals may be more intensively butchered and processed to obtain meat from fatter bison, even when many animals were malnourished. Expectations of the Vore and Annual Models are not supported by the analysis of dates, bison remains (dental wear and pathologies, post-cranial cortical thickness), and paleoclimatic indicators recovered from kill-sites throughout the Plains. The proportion and numbers of kill-sites are too low to represent annual events. Almost as many kills occurred in the spring and the fall. Many hunts were accomplished when the bison were in poor health and under diverse grazing and environmental conditions. Instead of being a response to subsistence and environmental problems, many communal hunts served to mediate social and political tensions by providing food and exchangeable items for human aggregations. Feasting, ceremonies, and exchanges could instill a sense of solidarity among participants and contribute to the mediation of tensions created by differences in power, wealth, gender, and age. 1987-01-01T08:00:00Z text https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI8710451 Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest ENG ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Archaeology
collection NDLTD
language ENG
sources NDLTD
topic Archaeology
spellingShingle Archaeology
FAWCETT, WILLIAM BLOYS
COMMUNAL HUNTS, HUMAN AGGREGATIONS, SOCIAL VARIATION, AND CLIMATIC CHANGE: BISON UTILIZATION BY PREHISTORIC INHABITANTS OF THE GREAT PLAINS
description Some anthropologists have argued that communal hunts played an important role in the evolution of hominids. Variation in the frequency and timing of bison hunts on the Great Plains has been explained with the Annual, Vore, and Fat Depletion Models. According to the Annual Model, hunts were organized in the fall to obtain stores of meat for consumption during the winter. The Vore Model refines the Annual Model by proposing that larger and more frequent bison kills occurred during periods with higher precipitation, better grazing conditions, and greater numbers of bison. Different animals may be more intensively butchered and processed to obtain meat from fatter bison, even when many animals were malnourished. Expectations of the Vore and Annual Models are not supported by the analysis of dates, bison remains (dental wear and pathologies, post-cranial cortical thickness), and paleoclimatic indicators recovered from kill-sites throughout the Plains. The proportion and numbers of kill-sites are too low to represent annual events. Almost as many kills occurred in the spring and the fall. Many hunts were accomplished when the bison were in poor health and under diverse grazing and environmental conditions. Instead of being a response to subsistence and environmental problems, many communal hunts served to mediate social and political tensions by providing food and exchangeable items for human aggregations. Feasting, ceremonies, and exchanges could instill a sense of solidarity among participants and contribute to the mediation of tensions created by differences in power, wealth, gender, and age.
author FAWCETT, WILLIAM BLOYS
author_facet FAWCETT, WILLIAM BLOYS
author_sort FAWCETT, WILLIAM BLOYS
title COMMUNAL HUNTS, HUMAN AGGREGATIONS, SOCIAL VARIATION, AND CLIMATIC CHANGE: BISON UTILIZATION BY PREHISTORIC INHABITANTS OF THE GREAT PLAINS
title_short COMMUNAL HUNTS, HUMAN AGGREGATIONS, SOCIAL VARIATION, AND CLIMATIC CHANGE: BISON UTILIZATION BY PREHISTORIC INHABITANTS OF THE GREAT PLAINS
title_full COMMUNAL HUNTS, HUMAN AGGREGATIONS, SOCIAL VARIATION, AND CLIMATIC CHANGE: BISON UTILIZATION BY PREHISTORIC INHABITANTS OF THE GREAT PLAINS
title_fullStr COMMUNAL HUNTS, HUMAN AGGREGATIONS, SOCIAL VARIATION, AND CLIMATIC CHANGE: BISON UTILIZATION BY PREHISTORIC INHABITANTS OF THE GREAT PLAINS
title_full_unstemmed COMMUNAL HUNTS, HUMAN AGGREGATIONS, SOCIAL VARIATION, AND CLIMATIC CHANGE: BISON UTILIZATION BY PREHISTORIC INHABITANTS OF THE GREAT PLAINS
title_sort communal hunts, human aggregations, social variation, and climatic change: bison utilization by prehistoric inhabitants of the great plains
publisher ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst
publishDate 1987
url https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI8710451
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