Of men and herds in barrenland prehistory

Date
1974
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This thesis represents an attempt at elucidating the temporal and spatial interrelationships between barrenland cultures, climates and caribou herds. Its core is in the form of a case study, that of the pre­historic interaction of the human hunting bands, climatic effects and caribou herd distributions in the Canadian barrenlands during the Arctic Small Tool tradition occupation after 1500 B.C. Following initial des­criptions of barrenland geography, biology, geology, climatology and ethnology, site locations resulting from the hunter and prey relationship are ex-plored. Basic to this relationship and site locations are two primary suppositions. They are: (1) caribou herds are discrete, their separateness b.?se.d upon environment and behavior; and (2) the hunting soci.eties who prey upori. the caribou tend to be discrete due to their alignment with discrete herds. Three corollaries follow the suppositions: (1) band movements and human communication are usually confined to herd migration corridors and forage areas; (2) differing cultural patterns develop in the hunting societies within herd areas; and (3) artifacts are more homogeneous within herding areas and more heterogeneous between herding areas, primarily due to restricted lateral movement and communi­cation. Because of their distribution, quantity, chronology and excel­lent diagnostic qualities, artifacts of the Arctic Small Tool tradition were used in testing the corollaries. The corollaries and suppositions comprise the discrete band/discrete herd relationship.
Description
Bibliography: p. 300-317.
Keywords
Citation
Gordon, B. H. (1974). Of men and herds in barrenland prehistory (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/13495