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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Archaeological Anthropology

Selected Works

2014

Boise State University

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Ethnoarchaeology As A Strategy For Building Frames Of Reference For Research Problems, Pei-Lin Yu Jan 2014

Ethnoarchaeology As A Strategy For Building Frames Of Reference For Research Problems, Pei-Lin Yu

Pei-Lin Yu

Ethnoarchaeology is a powerful strategy for structuring archaeological research questions that uses ethnographic information to make inferences about the material residues of past human activities. Ethnoarchaeology is not a theoretical approach per se, so it can investigate research questions generated from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives. Ethnoarchaeological scopes and scales of research are expanding rapidly in geography, chronology, method, and theoretical stance, from variables conditioning the manufacture of traditional technology to the evolution of symbolic expression and ritual behaviors.


Ice Patch Archaeology And Paleoecology In Glacier National Park, Pei-Lin Yu Jan 2014

Ice Patch Archaeology And Paleoecology In Glacier National Park, Pei-Lin Yu

Pei-Lin Yu

A fragment of basket. The tip of a digging stick. The shaft of an ancient spearthrower. Very rarely do such items preserve in the archeological record, but these works of ingenuity and craftsmanship, reflective of past human presence and lifeways in sub-alpine and alpine environments, have been preserved in nearly perfect condition in ice and snow patches for hundreds—or even thousands—of years. Also locked in the ice are traces of vanished ecosystems: animal scat, bones, horns, antlers, fragments of ancient wood, even entire “frozen forests.”


Implications Of Upper Columbia River Lithic Technology For Prehistoric Fishing In The Rockies, Pei-Lin Yu, Jackie M. Cook Jan 2014

Implications Of Upper Columbia River Lithic Technology For Prehistoric Fishing In The Rockies, Pei-Lin Yu, Jackie M. Cook

Pei-Lin Yu

Lithic tools used for fish processing in North America range from hafted lanceolate bifaces and microlithic blades to handheld lunate tools. Despite use wear and residue analysis, archaeologists still lack diagnostic means to identify archaeological fish processing tools at larger scales, resulting in a dearth of knowledge about past fishing behavior. This paper describes and predicts variability in tool shape using ethnographic fish processing data and functional morphology of tabular quartzite tools from Kettle Falls, a major Columbia River salmon fishery. Gender-specific organization of labor during intensive fish harvest and technological behavior associated with large-scale processing practiced by aquatic-focused foragers …