Prehistoric Foraging Strategies in the Piute Valley of Southern Nevada

Prehistoric Foraging Strategies in the Piute Valley of Southern Nevada PDF Author: Christopher Alan Brosman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Desert ecology
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
The Piute Valley of Southern Nevada is an incredibly diverse but arid zone in the eastern portion of the Mojave Desert. Most of this diversity can be attributed to the elevation shifts ranging from the Colorado River basin to the peaks of the surrounding mountain ranges. These peaks and valleys provide a multitude of resource zones in which prehistoric hunter-gatherers could provision themselves throughout the year. For this thesis I have used archaeological survey, paleo-climate models, life-sciences data and ethnographic research to perform an in-depth land use analysis of prehistoric forager adaptations to this challenging but life-sustaining environment. Recent investigations completed by the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) and the Public Lands Institute (PLI) have provided an abundance of data concerning prehistoric life-ways in this region. Using this research, available literature, and data in respect to the Piute Valley I have tested a model based on general foraging theory for Great Basin populations developed by Roth et al (2006). This model individually analyzed archaeological sites over a vast area based on settlement patterns, resource availability, and climate change throughout the Holocene. I have used Geographical Information Systems (ArcGIS) to synthesize the data and gain a holistic understanding of the land use patterns exhibited in the Piute Valley.

Prehistoric Foraging Strategies in the Piute Valley of Southern Nevada

Prehistoric Foraging Strategies in the Piute Valley of Southern Nevada PDF Author: Christopher Alan Brosman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Desert ecology
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
The Piute Valley of Southern Nevada is an incredibly diverse but arid zone in the eastern portion of the Mojave Desert. Most of this diversity can be attributed to the elevation shifts ranging from the Colorado River basin to the peaks of the surrounding mountain ranges. These peaks and valleys provide a multitude of resource zones in which prehistoric hunter-gatherers could provision themselves throughout the year. For this thesis I have used archaeological survey, paleo-climate models, life-sciences data and ethnographic research to perform an in-depth land use analysis of prehistoric forager adaptations to this challenging but life-sustaining environment. Recent investigations completed by the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) and the Public Lands Institute (PLI) have provided an abundance of data concerning prehistoric life-ways in this region. Using this research, available literature, and data in respect to the Piute Valley I have tested a model based on general foraging theory for Great Basin populations developed by Roth et al (2006). This model individually analyzed archaeological sites over a vast area based on settlement patterns, resource availability, and climate change throughout the Holocene. I have used Geographical Information Systems (ArcGIS) to synthesize the data and gain a holistic understanding of the land use patterns exhibited in the Piute Valley.

Prehistoric Hunter-gatherer Fishing Strategies

Prehistoric Hunter-gatherer Fishing Strategies PDF Author: Mark G. Plew
Publisher: Boise State University Department of Anthropology
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description


Hunter-gatherer Foraging Strategies

Hunter-gatherer Foraging Strategies PDF Author: Bruce Winterhalder
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780226902166
Category : Human ecology
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Includes chapter by J.F. OConnell and K. Hawkes, which has been annotated separately.

Hunter-gatherer Storage and Settlement

Hunter-gatherer Storage and Settlement PDF Author: Carly Suzanne Whelan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781339825366
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Despite decades of research into hunter-gatherer storage, we have only a limited understanding of how hunter-gatherers decide which foods to store, and how settlement strategies can influence storage decisions. This dissertation addresses these questions with an examination of storage and settlement in the prehistoric central Sierra Nevada of California. Previous research in the region indicates that plant foods have been stored since at least the middle Holocene, and that storage preferences and settlement strategies have changed over time. To more thoroughly examine the region's record of settlement and storage, and explain why storage behavior changed, I investigated twelve prehistoric sites in the Lower Merced River drainage of northwest Mariposa County, and sourced nearly 5,000 obsidian artifacts from four museum collections. To reconstruct the record of settlement in the central Sierra Nevada of California, I analyze lithic reduction techniques and obsidian source distributions using the assemblages from 29 temporally discrete site components. The results suggest that residential mobility was high during the early Holocene, gradually decreased after 7,000 cal B.P., and reached its lowest point after 1,100 cal B.P.I then present a conceptual model for examining the decision of which foods to store, with a particular focus on the opportunity costs of storage. In the central Sierra Nevada, women performed the majority of storage tasks, and likely faced a tradeoff between foraging and providing childcare. An analysis of archaeobotanical data from the region indicates that fall-ripening nuts provided the staple of the storage diet, but that gray pine nuts decreased in importance while acorns increased in importance during the last 1,100 years. Though they have comparable post-encounter return rates, acorns can be collected and stored much more quickly than gray pine nuts, minimizing the time that women would need to spend foraging. The need to minimize foraging time may not have been pressing during the early and middle Holocene, when a residentially mobile settlement strategy allowed women to forage for short durations, close to the residential base. Increased sedentism after 1,100 cal B.P. likely forced women to make lengthier foraging excursions, making it more difficult for them to take children on foraging bouts. Women may have preferred to store acorns in this situation, since acorns would have allowed them to transfer their labor from foraging to food processing -- a task that is more compatible with childcare. This dissertation provides a framework for examining the storage behavior of hunter-gatherers, and demonstrates that storage decisions can affect and be affected by mobility strategies. It also finds that women's foraging strategies may deviate from the predictions made by optimal foraging models when the unique tradeoffs that women face are not considered. This has implications for the study of intensification and the shift from foraging to farming, as it suggests that intensive processing of low-ranking plant foods may reflect a reorganization of women's labor among competing tasks, rather than a shift to a less efficient economy.

Improving the Prehistoric Chronology for Southern Nevada

Improving the Prehistoric Chronology for Southern Nevada PDF Author: Amy J. Gilreath
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Excavations (Archaeology)
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description


Settlement Patterns and Locational Strategies

Settlement Patterns and Locational Strategies PDF Author: Michael Kevin Crist
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Land settlement patterns, Prehistoric
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description


Prehistoric Use of the Coso Volcanic Field

Prehistoric Use of the Coso Volcanic Field PDF Author: Amy J. Gilreath
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Coso Range (Calif.)
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description


The Newlands Project

The Newlands Project PDF Author: William Joe Simonds
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Carson River (Nev.)
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description


A History of Beaver County

A History of Beaver County PDF Author: Martha Sonntag Bradley
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780913738177
Category : Beaver County (Utah)
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description


History Of Utah's American Indians

History Of Utah's American Indians PDF Author: Forrest Cuch
Publisher: Utah State Division of Indian Affairs
ISBN: 9780913738498
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
This book is a joint project of the Utah Division of Indian Affairs and the Utah State Historical Society. It is distributed to the book trade by Utah State University Press. The valleys, mountains, and deserts of Utah have been home to native peoples for thousands of years. Like peoples around the word, Utah's native inhabitants organized themselves in family units, groups, bands, clans, and tribes. Today, six Indian tribes in Utah are recognized as official entities. They include the Northwestern Shoshone, the Goshutes, the Paiutes, the Utes, the White Mesa or Southern Utes, and the Navajos (Dineh). Each tribe has its own government. Tribe members are citizens of Utah and the United States; however, lines of distinction both within the tribes and with the greater society at large have not always been clear. Migration, interaction, war, trade, intermarriage, common threats, and challenges have made relationships and affiliations more fluid than might be expected. In this volume, the editor and authors endeavor to write the history of Utah's first residents from an Indian perspective. An introductory chapter provides an overview of Utah's American Indians and a concluding chapter summarizes the issues and concerns of contemporary Indians and their leaders. Chapters on each of the six tribes look at origin stories, religion, politics, education, folkways, family life, social activities, economic issues, and important events. They provide an introduction to the rich heritage of Utah's native peoples. This book includes chapters by David Begay, Dennis Defa, Clifford Duncan, Ronald Holt, Nancy Maryboy, Robert McPherson, Mae Parry, Gary Tom, and Mary Jane Yazzie. Forrest Cuch was born and raised on the Uintah and Ouray Ute Indian Reservation in northeastern Utah. He graduated from Westminster College in 1973 with a bachelor of arts degree in behavioral sciences. He served as education director for the Ute Indian Tribe from 1973 to 1988. From 1988 to 1994 he was employed by the Wampanoag Tribe in Gay Head, Massachusetts, first as a planner and then as tribal administrator. Since October 1997 he has been director of the Utah Division of Indian Affairs.