Long-Distance Logistic Mobility as an Organizing Principle among Northern Hunter-Gatherers: A Great Lakes Middle Holocene Settlement System

2005 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 669-693 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Lovis ◽  
Randolph E. Donahue ◽  
Margaret B. Holman

Concepts of residential and logistic mobility are applied to survey assemblages from multiple decades of research along the interior drainages of central lower Michigan. Drawing on the ethnographic record of boreal hunter-gatherers and archaeological interpretations of long-distance logistic mobility from the Mesolithic of northern England and continental Europe, it is argued that the importance of logistic mobility is underrepresented in summaries of northern hemisphere hunter-gatherers. Reconstruction of Middle Holocene environments suggests that the resource structure of the central Michigan uplands was one that fostered use of logistic mobility, and that interior Middle Archaic assemblages and site structures reveal special function activities systemically tied to residential and other special function sites at lower coastal elevations, as well as currently submerged under Lake Huron. We conclude that rising levels of Lake Huron ca. 4500 B.P. resulted in decreased land area, population packing, and a consequent shift to residential mobility by the Late Archaic. Further, the results of this analysis can serve as a comparative framework for recognizing the role of logistic mobility in the evolution of hunter-gatherer adaptive strategies in other regions.

2015 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 332-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Homsey-Messer

This paper evaluates previous models of cave and rockshelter use in the American Midsouth from the Early to the Middle Archaic periods. Four sites are compared in order to identify variability in activities, seasonality, occupation intensity, and function. Focus is placed on using the often overlooked feature assemblages to discern these activities. Data suggest that the changing use of many caves and rockshelters is not one of longer term occupation as base camps, as has been previously argued, but rather as specialized field camps dedicated to the processing of mast resources. This shift takes place as Middle Holocene warming prompted hunter-gatherers to adopt a more logistical mobility strategy in order to take advantage of the spatio-temporal variance associated with increased mast availability. It is further argued that these sites were likely locations of women's activities and that foraging in the Midsouth involved groups of women engaged in daily tasks centered around mast, tasks that over time imbued caves and rockshelter s with symbolic meaning such that they came to function simultaneously as both processing camps and as persistent places of ritual significance in the hunter-gatherer taskscape.


1986 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 799-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter E. Klippel ◽  
Darcy F. Morey

The role of shellfish in the diet of hunter-gatherers in North America is poorly understood. Specifically, the interpretation of freshwater gastropods from archaeological sites as food remains has been a subject of professional debate. Data from the Hayes site (40ML139), a stratified Archaic midden on the Duck River in Tennessee, suggest that freshwater gastropods were procured in considerable quantities and utilized as a food resource. Evidence supporting this interpretation includes (1) quantities of gastropods in the midden, (2) stratigraphic relationship between shell-bearing strata and shell-free strata, and (3) pH analysis of associated sediments. Although gastropods provide relatively little meat and are a poor source of food energy compared to other animal species such as deer, they contain relatively high concentrations of several important vitamins and minerals. Thus, their primary value may have been nutrient content rather than food energy. This consideration, coupled with seasonal variation in their availability, suggests summer and/or fall as most likely periods of gastropod procurement.


The Holocene ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 095968362110116
Author(s):  
Sebastián Grasset ◽  
Amalia Nuevo-Delaunay ◽  
José Álvarez ◽  
Antonio Maldonado ◽  
César Méndez

The scarcity of middle Holocene radiocarbon dates in different regions of the Andes has been interpreted as an indicator of discontinuity in human occupations in response to adverse environmental conditions due to marked aridity. In the subtropical Andes of north-central Chile and adjacent areas, this paucity has been detected in radiocarbon ages between 8000 and 6000 cal BP. A systematic programme of cave excavations with detailed chronologies in the Combarbalá area in the Andean western foothills at 31°S allows questioning the role these spaces and ecosystems played for hunter-gatherers throughout the Holocene. The elusive record of dateable material has been addressed by excavating deposits under rock-shelters which tend to trap sedimentary material. This dataset has been compared with the available climate records and shows a collation between the onset of various site chronologies during the early-to-middle Holocene and periods of extreme aridity. The organization of mobility and the role of Andean foothills for hunter-gatherer settlements is reviewed. Resource availability in the area, namely fresh water supply, good-quality toolstones, faunal resources, and shelters, attracted mobile populations to these environments as indicated by our records as well as others in the broader region.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-112
Author(s):  
Anita Shrivastava ◽  
Andrea Burianova

This study aimed to explore the relationships between attachment styles, proximity, and relational satisfaction. This was achieved by assessing a distinct type of long distance romantic relationship of flying crews, compared with proximal (non-flying crew) romantic relationships. The responses of 139 expatriate professionals revealed significant associations between proximity and anxious and avoidant attachment dimensions. The role of the avoidant dimension in comparison with that of the anxious dimension was found to be a significant predictor of relational satisfaction. This study contributes significantly toward addressing the role of proximity and attachment in relational satisfaction in a new context of geographic separation.


This interdisciplinary volume presents nineteen chapters by Roman historians and archaeologists, discussing trade in the Roman Empire in the period c.100 BC to AD 350, and in particular the role of the Roman state, in shaping the institutional framework for trade within and outside the Empire, in taxing that trade, and in intervening in the markets to ensure the supply of particular commodities, especially for the city of Rome and for the army. The chapters in this volume address facets of the subject on the basis of widely different sources of evidence—historical, papyrological, and archaeological—and are grouped in three sections: institutional factors (taxation, legal structures, market regulation, financial institutions); evidence for long-distance trade within the Empire, in wood, stone, glass, and pottery; and trade beyond the frontiers, with the East (as far as China), India, Arabia, and the Red Sea, and the Sahara. Rome’s external trade with realms to the east emerges as being of particular significance to the fisc. But in the eastern part of the Empire at least, the state appears, in collaboration with the elite holders of wealth, to have adapted the mechanisms of taxation, both direct and indirect, to support its need for revenue. On the other hand, the price of that collaboration, which was in effect a fiscal partnership, in slightly different forms in East and West, in the longer term fundamentally changed the political character of the Empire.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 121-128
Author(s):  
Sigal Ben-Zaken ◽  
Yoav Meckel ◽  
Dan Nemet ◽  
Alon Eliakim

The ACSL A/G polymorphism is associated with endurance trainability. Previous studies have demonstrated that homozygotes of the minor AA allele had a reduced maximal oxygen consumption response to training compared to the common GG allele homozygotes, and that the ACSL A/G single nucleotide polymorphism explained 6.1% of the variance in the VO2max response to endurance training. The contribution of ACSL single nucleotide polymorphism to endurance trainability was shown in nonathletes, however, its potential role in professional athletes is not clear. Moreover, the genetic basis to anaerobic trainability is even less studied. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine the prevalence of ACSL single nucleotide polymorphism among professional Israeli long distance runners (n=59), middle distance runners (n=31), sprinters and jumpers (n=48) and non-athletic controls (n=60). The main finding of the present study was that the ACSL1 AA genotype, previously shown to be associated with reduced endurance trainability, was not higher among sprinters and jumpers (15%) compared to middle- (16%) and long-distance runners (15%). This suggests that in contrast to previous studies indicating that the ACSL1 single nucleotide polymorphism may influence endurance trainability among non-athletic individuals, the role of this polymorphism among professional athletes is still not clear.


2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Wang ◽  
Yong-Ling Ruan

Roots and shoots are distantly located but functionally interdependent. The growth and development of these two organ systems compete for energy and nutrient resource, and yet, they keep a dynamic balance with each other for growth and development. The success of such a relationship depends on efficient root-shoot communication. Aside from the well-known signalling processes mediated by hormones such as auxin and cytokinin, sugars have recently been shown to act as a rapid signal to co-ordinate root and shoot development in response to endogenous and exogenous clues, in parallel to their function as carbon and energy resources for biomass production. New findings from studies on vascular fluids have provided molecular insights into the role of sugars in long-distance communications between shoot and root. In this review, we discussed phloem- and xylem- translocation of sugars and the impacts of sugar allocation and signalling on balancing root–shoot development. Also, we have taken the shoot–root carbon–nitrogen allocation as an example to illustrate the communication between the two organs through multi-layer root–shoot–root signalling circuits, comprising sugar, nitrogen, cytokinin, auxin and vascular small peptide signals.


2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 312-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon C. Lohse

The earliest Lowland Maya are commonly recognized by permanent architecture and the appearance of pottery. However, when other lines of evidence are considered, strong continuities with late Archaic populations can be seen. Reconciling these views relies on more than simply gathering more data. It is also necessary to consider the effect of decades of scholarship that defines the precolumbian Maya as “civilization” rather than considering the historical contexts of important transitions, such as the one that culminated with sedentism, the adoption of new technologies, and participation in long-distance exchange. The Archaic-to-Preclassic transition was relatively brief and largely obscured by the practices of establishing permanent dwellings. Nevertheless, this period must have been extremely dynamic and marked by significant cultural change, making it important to researchers interested in early Mesoamerica. Using three lines of evidence—subsistence, economy and technology, and stratigraphically controlled radiocarbon data—this article argues that the Lowland Maya had their cultural origins at least in the late Archaic and that the case for pottery before ca. 1000 B.C. remains uncertain. Future research is needed to determine precisely how far back in time certain cultural practices that characterize Preclassic and Classic Maya society can be documented.


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