|
Traditionally, there has been a strong assumption that increased
exploitation of anadromous salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) was associated with the
development of complex social organization on the Northwest Coast. Models
emphasizing associations between complex social organization and subsistence
changes were evaluated using faunal data from 15 archaeological sites in the
southern Strait of Georgia of coastal northwestern Washington and southwestern
British Columbia. Sites sampled using 6.4mm (1/4-inch) mesh screens, and had
the results presented as Numbers of Identified Specimens (NISP) were used in
the study to reduce variation caused by sampling methods. Common taxa discussed
in the models were used in the assessment. Flatfish were compared to salmon;
and true cods (Gadus macrocephalus) and Perciformes (perches [Embiotocidae],
rock fish [Scorpaenidae], sablefishes [Anoplopomatidae], greenlings and lingcods
[Hexagrammidae] and sculpins [Cottidae]) were compared to salmon. Perciformes
are similar to the term “roundfish” used by Croes and Hackenberger (1988).
Roundfish were more important in sites from the archipelago while flatfish were
more common in sites near the sand and mud substrates of the Fraser River
Delta, but not along the river channels. Sea mammals and artiodactyls were also
compared to address those models that postulated an increase in land mammal use
after salmon intensification decreased. The conclusion based on these data, is
that salmon were not increasingly exploited during the Marpole phase, a period
of presumed complex social organization, but during the Developed Coast Salish
horizon when social organization was assumed to have become simpler. Mammal
exploitation also increased during the later phase. The increasing emphasis on
seals in mainland sites may be caused by expanding riverine technology to
exploit other available species more efficiently rather than expanding the
technology to offshore environments. The data best supported models that
described more complex adaptations to regionally accessible resources and those
that described an increasingly terrestrial focus to increase productivity.
|
