Unit 4
Archaeological Approaches to the Study of Prehistoric Hunter-gatherers

Prehistorically, Aboriginal peoples in Alberta followed a hunting-gathering lifeway. Generally speaking, hunter-gatherers (also called food-foragers) lived in small, extended family groups, hunted and gathered wild animal and plant foods, and moved frequently in order to be close to seasonally available resources. However, as you saw in Unit 3, there were considerable variations in the lifeways of hunter-gatherers, which depended partly on the natural environment, and partly on how the people chose to exploit that environment.

Characteristically, precontact hunter-gatherers have left behind a rather sparse archaeological record. It consists primarily of stone tools and waste flakes, the remnants of semi-permanent shelters, and occasionally, the remains of plants and animals. This comparatively scanty archaeological record stands in sharp contrast to the rich and well-organized social and economic patterns these groups developed for the survival and enjoyment of life in an often challenging environment.

The interpretation of the archaeological remains in Alberta, and the remains of hunter-gatherers in general, has provided archaeologists with a significant challenge. This unit describes and discusses some of the major methodological and theoretical approaches archaeologists have adopted and developed in order to investigate and interpret to the fullest the lifeways of precontact hunter-gatherers.

Learning Objectives

When you have completed this unit, you should be able to

1. define the term culture, and explain how it is related to human adaptation.
2. define cultural system, and explain why archaeologists use this approach.
3. define cultural process, and describe five sources of change in human societies.
4. define the term cultural ecology, and describe its three major assumptions.
5. describe the limitations of the archaeological record of precontact hunter-gatherers.
6. define ethnographic analogy, and explain its application to an archaeological interpretation of precontact hunter-gatherers.
7. compare and contrast the usefulness of ethnoarchaeology and ethnographic analogy in archaeological research.
8. define the term model as it applies to archaeological research, and explain why archaeologists use models.
9. describe the forager-collector model of hunter-gatherer adaptation.
10. describe the use of experimental archaeology in archaeological investigations of precontact hunter-gatherers.