Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Bone Tool Technology : Measurements Of Curation And The Spatial Distribution Of Bone And Antler Artifacts From A Pacific Northwest Coast Plankhouse Site, Deborah Davis

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to develop a method of assessing and measuring the amount of curation behavior present in a bone and antler tool assemblage. Using lithic analysis as a guide, curation is defined by the amount of energy invested in the tool manufacturing process along with the overall complexity of each artifact. The Meier site (35C05), a Chinookan plankhouse site near Portland, Oregon was used to test the hypothesis that people will use an expedient (low energy investment) technology when there is an abundance of raw material available, low group mobility, and low material transportation constraints.

Since …

Social Stratification Within A Protohistoric Plankhouse Of The Pacific Northwest Coast: Use-Wear And Spatial Distribution Analysis Of Chipped Lithic Artifacts, Cameron Mcpherson Smith

Dissertations and Theses

The spatial distribution of chipped lithic artifacts excavated at site 35C05, a Chinookan plankhouse of the protohistoric period, was observed to test the hypothesis that a gradient of material culture -- reflecting social status -- should be evident within the plankhouse, ranging from the highest to the lowest social rank. Prior to the spatial analysis, use-wear analysis was used to evaluate the classificatory labels used to describe the assemblage by a previous researcher. The use-wear analysis largely confirmed the functional classification of chipped lithic artifacts used by the previous researcher. The spatial analyses revealed that while most tool types were …

The Spatial Distribution Of Ground Stone Tools As A Marker Of Status Differentials In A Chinookan Plank House On The Lower Columbia River, John William Wolf

Dissertations and Theses

Social status was an integral part of the social structure of Northwest Coast societies. The presence of ranked social structures and household space based on rank is reported in the ethnographic literature. Archaeologists have long searched for independent and verifiable means to infer social structure from archaeological deposits. Burial goods have been used to identify status differences. Do other items of material culture also reflect such differences?

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether or not the distribution of certain tools recovered from a Chinookan plank house on the lower Columbia River paralleled the household residence location that …