Investigating the mobility pattern of prehistoric hunter-gatherers based on the analysis of their lithic technology characteristics
Received date: 2020-08-10
Revised date: 2020-12-02
Online published: 2022-04-13
Mobility is the key strategy for hunter-gatherers to adapt their environments and extract resources. An investigation of the specific mobility patterns of hunter-gatherers can help us get comprehensive understanding of the issues like their cultural evolution, social transitions, and interaction with environment. Based on the perspectives of technological organization and the reference of the relevant case studies, this paper aims to reveal how to investigate specific patterns of mobility from the features of lithic remains. It indicates that while the design and production of lithic tools can well indicate the degrees of mobility, the lithic assemblages across different sites within settlement system can reflect the organizational structure of mobility. Specific attentions shall be paid to avoid the “equifinality problems” when we use lithics to infer mobility pattern, and the integration with other kind of evidence, such as dwelling structures, settlement pattern, and fauna and flora remains, is highly advocated to reconstruct mobility patterns of prehistoric hunter-gatherers.
Key words： Mobility; Hunter-gatherer; Lithics; Technological organization; Cultural adaption
Chao ZHAO . Investigating the mobility pattern of prehistoric hunter-gatherers based on the analysis of their lithic technology characteristics[J]. Acta Anthropologica Sinica, 2022 , 41(02) : 370 -380 . DOI: 10.16359/j.cnki.cn11-1963/q.2020.0082
| [1] | Kelly RL. The Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers: The Foraging Spectrum (Second edition)[M]. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015 |
| [2] | Banard H, Wendrich W. The Archaeology of Mobility: Old World and New World Nomadism[M]. Cotsen advanced seminars 4, University of California, Los Angeles, 2008 |
| [3] | 陈胜前. 史前的现代化——中国农业起源过程的文化生态考察[M]. 北京: 科学出版社, 2013, 32-34 |
| [4] | Sellet F, Greaves R, Yu PL. Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeology of Mobility[M]. University Press of Florida, 2006 |
| [5] | Chen SQ, Yu PL. Intensified foraging and the roots of farming in China[J]. Journal of Anthropological Research, 2017, 73(2):149-180 |
| [6] | Kelly RL. Hunter-gatherer mobility strategies[J]. Journal of Anthropological Research, 1983, 39(3):277-306 |
| [7] | Torrence R. Time budgeting and hunter-gatherer technology[A]. Hunter-Gatherer Economy in Prehistory- A European Perspective[C]. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983, 11-22 |
| [8] | Binford LR. Willow smoke and dogs’ tails: Hunter-gatherer settlement systems and archaeological site formation[J]. American Antiquity, 1980, 45:4-20 |
| [9] | Nelson MC. The study of technological organization[J]. Archaeological Method and Theory, 1991, 3:57-100 |
| [10] | Bleed P. The optimal design of hunting weapons: Maintainability or reliability[J]. American Antiquity, 1986, 51(4):737-747 |
| [11] | Shott M. Technological organization and settlement mobility: An ethnographic examination[J]. Journal of Anthropological Research, 1986, 42(1):15-51 |
| [12] | Kuhn SL. A formal approach to the design and assembly of mobile toolkits[J]. American Antiquity, 1994, 59(3):426-442 |
| [13] | Ebert JI. An ethnoarchaeological approach to reassessing the meaning of variability in stone tool assemblages[A]. Ethnoarchaeology: Implications of Ethnography for Archaeology[C]. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979, 59-74 |
| [14] | Kelly RL. The three sides of a biface[J]. American Antiquity, 1988, 53(4):717-734 |
| [15] | Parry WJ, Kelly RL. Expedient core technology and sedentism[A]. The Organization of Core Technology[C]. Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1987: 285-304 |
| [16] | 陈淳. 几何形细石器和细石叶的打制及用途[J]. 文物季刊, 1984(4):72-78 |
| [17] | Elston RG, Brantingham PJ. Microlithic technology in Northern Asia: A risk-minimizing strategy of the Late Paleolithic and Early Holocene[J]. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 2002, 12(1):103-116 |
| [18] | 陈胜前. 细石叶工艺的起源——一个生态与理论的视角[J]. 考古学研究, 2008: 244-264 |
| [19] | Graf KE. Hunter-gatherer dispersals in the mammoth-steppe: technological provisioning and land-use in the Enisei River valley, south-central Siberia[J]. Journal of Archaeological Science, 2010, 37(1):210-223 |
| [20] | Cowan FL. Making sense of flake scatters: Lithic technological strategies and mobility[J]. American Antiquity, 1999, 64(4):593-607 |
| [21] | Binford LR. The archaeology of place[J]. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 1982, 1(1):5-31 |
| [22] | Janz L, Odsuren D, Bukhchuluun D. Transitions in paleoecology and technology: Hunter-gatherers and early herders in the Gobi Desert[J]. Journal of World Prehistory, 2017, 30(1):1-80 |
| [23] | Kuhn SL. On planning and curated technologies in the Middle Paleolithic[J]. Journal of Anthropological Research, 1992, 48(3):185-214 |
| [24] | Binford LR. Organization and formation processes: Looking at curated technologies[J]. Journal of Anthropological Research, 1979, 35(3):255-273 |
| [25] | Andrefsky W. Raw-material availability and organization of technology[J]. American Antiquity, 1994, 59(1):21-34 |
| [26] | Bamforth DB. Technological efficiency and tool curation[J]. American Antiquity, 1986, 51(1):38-50 |
| [27] | 王幼平. 中国远古人类文化的源流[M]. 北京: 科学出版社, 2006: 204-291 |
| [28] | 王幼平. 嵩山东南麓MIS3阶段古人类的栖居形态及相关问题[J]. 考古学研究, 2013: 287-296 |
| [29] | Rocek TR, Bar-Yosef O. Seasonality and Sedentism: Archaeological Perspectives from Old and New World Sites[M]. Peabody Museum Bulletin 6, Harvard University, 1998 |
| [30] | Goebel T. Pleistocene human colonization of Siberia and peopling of the Americas: An ecological approach[J]. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 1999, 8(6):208-227 |
/
| 〈 |
|
〉 |