The Organization of Domestic Space in Late Prehistoric Owens Valley Households (original) (raw)

The best laid plans: Assemblage formation and abandonment at two house sites in the Central Plains

The best laid plans: Assemblage formation and abandonment at two house sites in the central Plains , 2023

Systematic, fine-grained data recovery and spatial analysis facilitate interpretation of household assemblage formation and abandonment at two late prehistoric (AD 1000-1500) lodges in the Central Plains: the Scott and Phil sites in northeastern and north-central Kansas, respectively. This is based on patterns in lodge design, construction, storage, and domestic activities inferred from the distribution of burned wood, burned stone, daub, ceramics, chipped stone tools, and lithic debris. These reflect patterns of cultural material discard, displacement, clean-up, and gendered space utilization, as well as planned vs. unplanned abandonment that may compare to households of other sedentary, low level food producers in the Great Plains and other regions.

Domestic spaces as crucibles of Paleolithic culture: An archaeological perspective

Journal of Human Evolution, 2022

The places in which people live, sleep, prepare food, and undertake other activitiesdknown variably as homes, residential sites, living sites, and domestic spacesdplay a key role in the emergence and evolution of modern human culture. The dynamic influence of domestic spaces began early in human evolutionary history, during the Paleolithic/Stone Age. Drawing on examples from Africa and western Eurasia, this article explores aspects of the changing social and cultural significance of domestic spaces throughout this time using several lines of evidence: repeated site visitation, behavioral structuring of living spaces, and information gained by dissecting palimpsest records. With the development of pyrotechnology, living sites become hearth-centered domestic spaces that provided a common hub for activities. Through time the activities around hearths increased in their complexity and diversity. The parsing of palimpsest records by archaeologists also reveals changes in the nature, variety, and intensity of on-site activities through time, indicating shifts in site function and the spatial expression of cultural norms. Archaeological evidence shows that the entwined development of domestic spaces and human cultural activities was gradual, albeit nonlinear from the Lower Paleolithic through the Upper Paleolithic/ later Middle Stone Age. In this process, domestic spaces emerged as common arenas of opportunity for social interaction and knowledge transmission, qualities that may have contributed to and enhanced the development of cumulative culture in Paleolithic society.

Hunter–gatherer mobility, storage, and houses in a marginal environment: an example from the mid-Holocene of Wyoming

Important for considerations of hunter-gatherer mobility is delineating what the presence of house remains in the archaeological record from an environmentally marginal area represents in terms of mobility patterns-especially the duration of site occupation and the stability of these patterns from year to year. Some insights into the archaeological record concerning houses and mobility in a marginal environment can be obtained by investigating several lines of evidence: the design and substantialness of the represented structures; the density and diversity of the recovered remains; the distribution of the remains and whether refuse cleaning was practiced; the kinds, relative efficiency, and quantity of resources exploited; the presence or absence of long-term storage facilities; and the possibility of site reuse. The excavation of 41 pit structures or housepits at 21 sites in the Wyoming and Big Horn basins of Wyoming dating to the mid-Holocene provides an excellent opportunity to study hunter-gatherer mobility and houses in a marginal, low carrying capacity environment. The Wyoming housepits appear to represent short-term occupations of residentially mobile groups, who constructed these structures in anticipation of repeated visits and reuse over a period of yearsexemplifying stable land use patterns.

Obsidian Acquisition and Exchange Networks: A Diachronic Perspective on Households in the Owens Valley

Journal of California …, 2008

The last 2,000 years of prehistory in the southern Owens Valley of eastern California witnessed major changes in human subsistence, settlement, and technology. Using a household perspective, we test the hypothesis that these societies became increasingly focused on the nuclear and/or extended family as the basic economic unit. To this end, we examine patterns in the acquisition of exotic materials, especially obsidian and marine-shell beads, in relationship to other locallyproduced artifact categories. Results show (1) an increasing geochemical diversity in obsidian and an increasing density of non-local beads, indicating increased and geographically wider trading activities through time; (2) an increasing heterogeneity between household units in terms of access to non-local obsidian after 650 B.P., indicating differential access to exchange networks; and (3) a correlation between house size and obsidian diversity after 650 B.P., suggesting that larger domestic units differentially participated in the movement of exotic goods. These findings support the notion that households, as basic economic units, were increasingly focused on internal subsistence and exchange pursuits, rather than village- or communal-level activities, and that exotic material goods became increasingly privatized over time in association with the privatization of subsistence resources.

Aggregation, interregional interaction, and postmarital residence patterning: A study of biological variation in the late prehistoric middle Ohio Valley

American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2014

This study examines a perennial problem in anthropology, changes in postmarital residence patterning. Cross-cultural patterns related to shifts from patrilocal to matrilocal patterns have been attributed to changes in subsistence and/or the result of migrants entering a populated region. Shifts from matrilocal to multilocal patterns have been found to be related to depopulation. This study examines these possibilities in an archeological context through morphometric analyses of human dentition. Comparisons in variability among males and females are made at four Fort Ancient sites in the Middle Ohio Valley that date to sequential time periods between circa A.D.

Post-marital Residence Patterns in the Late Archaic Coastal Southeast USA: Similarities in Stone Tools Revealed by Geometric Morphometrics

Journal of Archaeological Method and theory, 2020

Analyses of hafted biface shape using geometric morphometrics reveals similarities between assemblages recovered from two contemporaneous settlements located in coastal Georgia (USA), both dating to ca. 4200–3900 cal. B.P. This finding contradicts prior studies that demonstrated notable differences in pottery manufacture techniques used at each site. This pattern of similarity in one technology and differences in another suggests that residents of these settlements engaged in post-marital residence practices that resulted in potters remaining in their natal homes while stone tool makers were the post-marital mobile gender. Based on historic records, as well as limited archaeological studies, we posit that women were the primary producers of pottery and that matrilocality was a dominant practice in the region. This conclusion is strengthened by studies along nearby river valleys where similar patterns were observed. We posit that matrilocality was a means by which newly sedentary groups formed alliances, exchange relations, and social networks among and between one another even as mobility between regions decreased.