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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Archaeology Of The Longue Durée: Temporal And Spatial Scale In The Evolution Of Social Complexity On The Southern Northwest Coast, Kenneth M. Ames Jan 1991

The Archaeology Of The Longue Durée: Temporal And Spatial Scale In The Evolution Of Social Complexity On The Southern Northwest Coast, Kenneth M. Ames

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The emphasis on temporal and geographic scale of the French Annales school of history (cf. Braudel 1980; Baker 1984; Lewthwaite 1988) is the inspiration for this paper. Braudel (1980) divides time into three durations: short term events (days, weeks, months, a few years), medium length conjunctures (years, decades, even major portions of centuries), and long term structures (which may last centuries, even millennia). This last duration is the longue durée. Basic to Annales' thought - and the longue durée - is the idea that to understand historical developments, to explain their causes and dynamics, one must know their temporal and …


Sedentism: A Temporal Shift Or A Transitional Change In Hunter-Gatherer Mobility Patterns?, Kenneth M. Ames Jan 1991

Sedentism: A Temporal Shift Or A Transitional Change In Hunter-Gatherer Mobility Patterns?, Kenneth M. Ames

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Archaeologists widely perceive sedentism as a necessary precondition for social elaboration and complexity among hunter-gatherers. The origins and causes of sedentism are major archaeological research problems, and researchers concern themselves with the transition between nomadism and sedentism. In this paper I argue that there is only variation in residential patterns, which may include sedentism; that sedentism, however it is defined, is not a stable residential pattern among hunter-gatherers; and that, rather than explain the causes of sedentism, one must explain shifts in residential mobility patterns. The case study illustrating these points is drawn from the dry interior region of the …