Marine Ventures - Archaeological Perspectives on Human-Sea Relations - Hein B. Bjerck

Marine Ventures - Archaeological Perspectives on Human-Sea Relations - Hein B. Bjerck

8. Exploring Trajectories towards Social Complexity: Marine Foragers in the Archipelagos of Tierra del Fuego and Norway

Marine Ventures - Archaeological Perspectives on Human-Sea Relations - Hein B. Bjerck

A. Francisco J. Zangrando [+-]
Laboratory of Anthropology CADIC-CONICET
Atilio Francisco Zangrando is a full-time researcher at CADIC-CONICET (Argentina), and part-time lecturer at the University of Buenos Aires. His current research focuses on marine hunter-gatherers in southern South America, and includes coastal archaeology, settlement patterns, zooarchaeology and stable isotopes.
Angélica M. Tivoli
Laboratory of Anthropology CADIC-CONICET
Hein B. Bjerck [+-]
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Hein B. Bjerck is professor in archaeology (research and teaching) at the NTNU University Museum in Trondheim. His research is focussed on early marine foraging (Marine Ventures project), and large scale excavation projects (Ormen Lange project). Bjerck is also involved in research on the recent past, and project member in Ruin Memories, After Discourse and Objects Matter.
Heidi Mjelva Breivik [+-]
Department of Historical Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Heidi Mjelva Breivik holds a PhD in archaeology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Her research focusses Early Stone Age with emphasis on marine foragers, human–environment relations, technology and settlement patterns.
Silje E. Fretheim [+-]
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Silje E. Fretheim is a PhD candidate in Archaeology at NTNU, The University Museum, Trondheim. Research interests: Stone Age dwellings and settlement structures, dynamics in the Mesolithic of the Scandinavian Peninsula, comparative studies, interactions between coastal and inland foragers.
Ernesto L. Piana
National University of Tierra del Fuego

Description

This paper explores the progressive views that frame the history of marine foragers from simple to complex organizations. Based on the ethnographic and archaeological records of the complex hunter-gatherers in the Northwest Coast of North America, three evidences are normally discussed to recognize complexity: Settlement patterns, decoration on portable objects and fishing intensification. This paper compares these archaeological measures between the Northwest Coast and two other landscapes with similar natural settings: The marine hunter-gatherers in Mesolithic Norway and the Beagle Channel in southernmost Argentina. Since the criteria used to assess the archaeological record vary between regions and scientific traditions, the evaluations of changes towards complexity are many-sided and ambiguous. In this paper the following arguments are supported: 1. Structural changes are not always seen in settlement patterns among these societies and when these changes are observed in some areas, they do not reach the same archaeological measures as identified for the Northwest Coast; 2. Structural changes in settlement patterns are not always accompanied by changes in other social complexity markers (e.g. art production, fishing intensification, etc.); 3. Social complexity is not the only condition for the production of decorated artefacts; 4. Not all high latitude marine hunter-gatherers that intensified fish resources may classify as 'complex' or ‘semi-sedentary’ societies.

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Citation

Zangrando, A. Francisco J. ; Tivoli, Angélica; Bjerck, Hein; Breivik, Heidi; Fretheim, Silje; Piana, Ernesto. 8. Exploring Trajectories towards Social Complexity: Marine Foragers in the Archipelagos of Tierra del Fuego and Norway. Marine Ventures - Archaeological Perspectives on Human-Sea Relations. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 123-138 Nov 2016. ISBN 9781781791363. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=24571. Date accessed: 09 Dec 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.24571. Nov 2016

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