2/5/20

Archaeological Theory:
New Ideas for a New Archaeology:
– Behavioral and Ecological Archaeology and Beyond

D.L. Clarke W. Rathje

Behavioral Archaeology

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fo rm
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N-Transforms

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To interpret the archaeological record, we use

analogy to make a connection between observed
behaviors (and their material correlates) and what is
observed archaeologically.

How do we do this cautiously?

• Experimental archaeology
• Ethnoarchaeology
• Taphonomy

Behavioral Archaeology – 1976

Michael Schiffer

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Behavioral Archaeology

Archaeology —
the study of past human behavior through material culture.

Behavioral Archaeology

Archaeology —
the study of past human behavior through material culture.

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Behavioral Archaeology

• Addresses issues surrounding inferences archaeologists make

regarding site formation processes.

• Focuses on correlations between behavior and material culture

(i.e., artifacts and artifact assemblages)

• Seeks to explain variability and change in human behavior.

Behavioral Archaeology
Basic Tenets
• Knowledge of the past is inferential and based on modern material
residues that owe their existence and structure to:
a) such human behaviors as subsistence practices or rituals,
b) cultural (c) site transformation processes (e.g., discard),
c) natural (n) site transformation processes (e.g., erosion)

• Archaeologists can study any and all sociocultural phenomena as long

as they can be viewed as people-artifact interactions.

• Defining archaeology as “the study of people through artifacts and

people-artifact interactions” provides an integrative focus.

• The inferential approach of behavioral archaeology rests on

experimental studies and empirical generalities regarding people-
artifact interaction (correlates) and site formation processes:
(c- and n-transforms).

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Behavioral Archaeology

William Rathje

Behavioral Archaeology

Four (Interactive) Strategies

1) Prehistoric and historic archaeology (traditional and processual)

involve the study of past human behavior on the basis of artifacts
produced in the past.

2) Ethnoarchaeology and experimental archaeology involve the study of

modern human behaviors and their resultant artifacts for the
purpose of constructing laws useful for studying past human
behaviors.

3) One could investigate artifacts resulting from past human behaviors

in order to acquire principles of long-term behavioral change, as
useful for investigating human behavior of the past and present.

4) One could examine modern behaviors of the artifacts produced by

those behaviors (e.g., Rathje’s Garbage Project)
O’Brien et al., Archaeology as Process, 2005

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The Anthropology of Us
(put on your Meta glasses)

What does the archaeology of you look like?

The Archaeology of Us

William Rathje

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The Archaeology of Landfills

Rathje’s Archaeology of Landfills

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The Archaeology of Landfills

The Archaeology of Landfills

Meat with fat, 1973

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The Archaeology of Landfills

The Garbage Project

§ The Garbage project started in the 1970s

§ Started as a classroom project by two students

§ Wanted to look at the nature of changing patterns in modern

refuse and patternize consumption

§ Rathje decided that this would be a good way to analyze human

consumption and to look at human behavior through an
archaeological and sociological perspective

§ Questioners were handed out to each participant and this data was
juxtaposed with the refuse found

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The Tucson Garbage Project

(watch this)

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“Garbage Doesn’t Lie”

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The Battle of Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn) - 1876

The Battle of Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn) - 1876

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The Battle of Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn) - 1876

The Battle of Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn) - 1876

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Dave Maxwell’s ARCH 201

https://www.sfu.ca/cee/news/if-you-build-it-will-they-come.html

Dave Maxwell’s ARCH 201

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Bonus Track: Types of American Feasts

Wilson, D.C., and W.J. Rathje

2001 Garbage and the Modern American Feast. In
Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on
Food, Politics, and Power, edited by M. Dietler and
B. Hayden, pp. 404–421. Smithsonian Institution
Press, Washington, D.C.

• Feasting takes place within the household.

• Cookbooks identify the American feast as centered on traditional
religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter.
• The cocktail parties is the most American of feasts.

• Three functions of feasting behaviors in Washington, D.C.

- Political parties
- Economic parties
- Personal parties

Modern Feasts

“…the social and economic processes that have led to the widespread
availability of specialty foods, the mass-production of low-cost commercial
goods, and the shrinking size and increased financial independence of
households in urban and suburban settings, have democratized, downsized,
and fragmented the American feast.…many of the functions of American
feasts have fallen away with their formal attributes, leaving “parties” that
function primarily as solidarity feasts.”
Wilson and Rathje 1996: 405

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Modern Feasts

Modern Feasts

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Modern Feasts

Democratization of the American Feast

§ Feasting behaviours are based in tradition and “emic”

prescription, but are also determined at the household level.

§ Some level of formal feasting etiquette remains, but a more

flexible and generalized attitude is observed.

§ The widespread availability of specialty foods and mass

production of feasting paraphernalia allows for everyone to
celebrate year round.

§ Downsizing of the American feast is seen in smaller group

size and a decrease in the amount of resources put into the
feast.

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Behavioral Archaeology of the Canadian Feast

• Feasting behaviors are based in tradition and “emic”

prescription, but are also determined at the household level.

• These behaviors reflect normative values.

• ??

• ??

Other Applications of Behavioral Archaeology

Brian Hayden

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Other Applications of Behavioral Archaeology

Putting Feasts in Context

Community moving a 25-ton rock for Weyewa tribal “big man” Lende Mbutu,
on island of Sumba, Indonesia, part of a complex social, political, and economic
relationships in action.

Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWvEMidVRQQ (7:28-27:30 min)

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Questions?

Intermission

Jeff Beck + Imogen Heap– “Rollin’ and Tumblin’”

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Term Project Topics

Start reviewing tonight

Ecological and
Behavioral Approaches

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Neoevolutionism: Cultural Ecology

Julian Steward

1938

Neoevolutionism: Cultural Ecology

Shoshone (hunter-gatherers)

• lived in small groups

• egalitarian
• no economic surplus allowing stratification

= arid conditions and H-G lifeway restrict group

size; foster nuclear family as core unit

As technology improves/increases (e.g., farming):

- greater control over environment
- increased economic surplus
- increased population size/density
- shift from egalitarianism to ranked/
stratified systems.

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Ecological Archaeology / Prehistoric Human Ecology

Significant Approaches in Ecological Archaeology

• Environmental archaeology
- Reconstruction of past environments; subsistence and settlement studies

• Traditional ecological archaeology

- Niche theory; predator-prey relations; food web theory

• Sociological theory in archaeology

- Optimal foraging; decision-making

• Human impact on the environment

- Anthropogenic change

• Evolutionary/Darwinian archaeology
- Means of cultural transmission

• Interfaces between archaeology and political ecology

- Political economy and natural resources

• Interfaces between archaeology, ecology, and cognition

- Belief systems; ideology

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Hunter-Gatherers on the (Neo-evolutionary) Landscape

Binford’s Model of Generalized

Hunter-Gatherer Behavior

Foragers are characterized by

those groups, living in
relatively homogenous, non-
seasonal environments, that
collect resources on an
encounter basis.

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Binford’s Model of Generalized

Hunter-Gatherer Behavior

Collectors are characterized by

those groups, living in
heterogenous environments
with distinct seasons that map
onto the landscape,
establishing seasonal rounds to
collect particular resources at
particular places at different
times of the year.

L.R. Binford, Constructing Frames of Reference, 2001

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Hunter-Gatherers:
Archaeological and Evolutionary Theory

Hunter-Gatherers in the Great Basin:

• Kawich Mountain Shoshone

• Reese River Shoshone
• Owens Valley Paiute

How and why do these three groups differ in terms of:

• settlement and subsistence pattern?
• implications for archaeology?

Hunter-Gatherers:
Archaeological and Evolutionary Theory

Foragers and Collectors in the Great :

• Kawich Mountain Shoshone

– conform to patterns expected of foragers
• Reese River Shoshone
– summer foragers; spring-fall-winter collectors
• Owens Valley Paiute
– collectors

All three Great Basin groups share same technology;

but logistical/settlement patterns differ markedly.

(Bettinger, Ch. 3, Middle Range Theory, 1991)

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The Foraging Spectrum

Robert Kelly

2013

Robert Kelly Jack St.Clair

Fraser Andrews
“ Archaeologists may not see the trees, but we see the forest
with great clarity. Patterns in the distribution of our material
remains provide a great view of the overarching organization
and story of human societies.”

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Not that R. Kelly

Life Born March 16, Kelly received David Hurst

1957 in his: Thomas was
Connecticut
Eminent American Became BA Anthropology
Kelly’s
supervisor @
Gatecliff
archaeologist, involved in
archaeology
from Cornell
University,
Rockshelter
while still in
globally recognized Highschool
MA from the
The two have
since formed a

for ethnographic Participated in

University of
New Mexico,
strong academic
relationship
excavation of
work on hunter- Gatecliff
Rockshelter at PHD from the
Co-Authored
16 years of age widely used
gatherer societies University of
Michigan.
textbook:
Archaeology

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Achievements Senior Humboldt
Research Award
Distinguished
Lecturer
Over a million
dollars in grant
Germany funding
(2017) Previously:
- Department Head $$$
- Director of Frisen
Institute

President of the
Society for American Authored over 100 Amicus Curiae for
Archaeology (2001- articles, reviews,
and books
Kennewick case.

2003)

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Research primarily dedicated to

the archaeology, ethnography,
and ethnology of hunter-
gatherers
Research
Interests
1 2 3
.

Hunter- Human Archaeolo-

gatherer behaviour gical
ethnology al Ecology method
and theory

Research
Emphasis
”While I am often astounded at
the information we can squeeze
from stone tools and pottery
shards, digging up the
remains of long-gone
societies can rarely, if
ever, tell us as much Archaeologist with a
about people as an in- penchant for
depth ethnographic behavioural ecology
study. But archaeology is & ethnography using
excellent at sketching the big Middle-range theory
picture.” =
Ethnoarchaeology?

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Other key contributions

● Robert Kelly has also contributed significantly as a professor of archaeology and
anthropology.
● Introductions to archaeology, hunter-gatherers, lithic analysis, North American
archaeology, and human behavioural ecology.
● These teachings helped the modern archaeology student.

His influences and mentor

● David Hurst Thomas has been a large influence and mentor for Kelly.
● Kelly worked alongside Thomas as a volunteer at Gatecliff Rockshelter.
● Both men have worked on and contributed to relationships between First Nations
and anthropology.
● Kelly was also influenced by the work of Lewis Binford on middle range theory and
general model of Hunter-Gatherer behaviour.

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Who he influenced
● Students of archaeology around the world with a relatively wide research scope.
● Kelly has received awards and honors from various institutions.
● His works have been cited thousands of times by fellow archaeologists.
● He is now the mentor to several prominent archaeologists.

Works Cited
ResearchGate
2020. Robert Kelly: University of Wyoming, University of Louisville.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert_Kelly3

University of Wyoming
Department of Anthropology: Robert Kelly, Professor. Anthropology Department.
http://www.uwyo.edu/anthropology/directory/r-kelly.html

Interview, The Richard Eeds Show, Santa Fe, New Mexico, October, 2017: https://santafe.com/ktrc/podcasts/robert-
kelly-lecturer-for-the-school-for-advanced-research

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Connection

The Foraging Spectrum

Robert Kelly

2013

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The Foraging Spectrum

How Should You Be Reading This Stuff ?

Kelly’s The Foraging Spectrum

Kelly’s two explicit goals

• To combat the tendency among anthropology professors to

oversimplify hunter-gatherer (H-G) societies;

• To correct the tendency of anthropology students to

misunderstand the factors that condition human differences

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Kelly’s The Foraging Spectrum

Kelly suggests that we should not view H-Gs as:

– A simplistic society
– Humanity in a virginal state of nature
– Pleistocene relics
– Preserving ancient lifeways
– A tool by which we can (uncritically) extrapolate backwards to
ancient H-G lifeways

Kelly’s The Foraging Spectrum

Kelly emphasizes:

– Variability in the foraging lifestyle

– Understanding the factors which led to this variability, such as:
• differences in subsistence activities
• mobility
• trade
• sharing
• territoriality
• demography
• socio-political organization

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Kelly’s The Foraging Spectrum

Stereotypes of diet are not useful, but....

Forager diets are systematically related to two environmental variables:

• effective temperature (ET)
• primary production (PP)

The amount of plant food in a foraging diet should be related to the

amount of humanly edible plan food in that environment

The Foraging Spectrum

Effective temperature (ET) is a

measure of both the length of
the growing season and the
intensity of solar energy.
ET ranges from 26 (at equator) to
8 (at poles)
Low ET = cold seasonal
environments, short growing
season
High ET = tropical, non-seasonal
environments, long growing
season.

Primary productivity (PP) is a

measure of amount of biomass
per area unit per year.

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Kelly’s The Foraging Spectrum

Primary Productivity (PP) and Effective Temperature (ET) are not always
good predictors of diet (dependence on hunted foods):

– PP and ET characterize terrestrial environments

– Does not consider variables such as aquatic resources and trade

• H-G diets are products of a decision-making process that takes

the cost of acquiring resources into account

L.R. Binford, Constructing Frames of Reference:

An Analytical Method for Archaeological Theory Building Using Ethnographic and
Environmental Data Sets (2001)

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Constructing Frames of Reference

Optimal Foraging Models

What is Optimal Foraging ?

A general theory of ecology predicts that hunter-gatherers, for
example, will not eat all available foods, but will instead tend to
select those foods that “maximize the rate of caloric return for
the time they spend foraging.”

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Optimal Foraging Models

Ecological models designed to understand and predict foraging

behavior

Three strategies or models:

1. Linear Programming
2. Diet-Breadth
3. Patch-Choice

Optimal Foraging Models

Ecological models designed to understand and predict foraging

behavior

All 3 models need:

• the “goal” of maximizing to maximize foraging efficiency
• the “currency” = energy/calories
• the “constraints” = spatial/temporal limits
• the “options” = food choices; other activities

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1. Linear Programming Model

A mathematical model for examining multiple variables

Kelly, p. 75

Identifying correlations between food sources based on protein,

caloric, vitamin, and other factors in diet

Linear Programming Model

Depending on the input variables, the model can be used to examine:

• Different aspects of diet

• What resources will be used when
• The plant/meat ratio in diet
• Minimum foraging time
• The number of dependants in a family

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Linear Programming Model

Problems…

• The parameters must be highly accurate

• The user is forced to make generalizations
• The model can not address dietary diversity

2. Diet-Breadth Model

An ecological model designed to predict whether a resource will be

taken if encountered.

Relevant factors:
• Search Cost/Encounter Rate
• Handling Cost
• Opportunity Cost

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Diet Breadth: Optimizing Foraging

Diet Breadth: Optimizing Foraging

Wild pig - 20,000 cal/ 4 hours search + 2 hours processing

= 20,000 cal/6 = 3,333 cal/hr

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Diet Breadth: Optimizing Foraging

Wild pig - 20,000 cal/ 4 hours search + 2 hours processing

= 20,000 cal/6 = 3,333 cal/hr

plus

Anteater (adds 10,000 cal/2 hrs processing)

= 30,000/8 hrs = 3,750 cal/hr = gain

Diet Breadth: Optimizing Foraging

Wild pig - 20,000 cal/ 4 hours search + 2 hours processing

= 20,000 cal/6 = 3,333 cal/hr

plus

Anteater (adds 10,000 cal/2 hrs processing)

= 30,000/8 hrs = 3,750 cal/hr = gain

plus
Bats adds 500 cal/2 hrs processing)
= 30,500 cal/10hrs = 3,050/hr = loss

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Diet-Breadth Model

Based on a system of ranking all possible

food sources:

• Different foods have different

energy returns
• High calorie food are high ranked
–the goal of the forager is to
maximize the energy-return rate
• Abundance does not affect rank

Kelly, p. 86

Diet-Breadth Model
Problems…
• Need data for all possible food sources
• Tabooed foods are not included in diet, but often included in
analysis

Solutions…
Experimental data (ethnography)
• Why don’t HG groups hunt more small game?
– energy returns are much lower than with large game

• What happens when HG groups use motorized vehicles and

firearms?
– reduced search costs means a higher level of
specialization on big game animals

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Diet-Breadth Model

Two major assumptions:

• Environment is spatially homogeneous

• HGs forage randomly

– Short-term analysis - not so useful

– Long-term analysis - illustrates patterns

3. Patch-Choice Model

Examines which resource patches will be utilized.

Assumes:

• Resources are dispersed in patches across the landscape

• Patches are encountered randomly by HGs
• The forager does not return to the patch until rejuvenated
• Travel time between patches is non-productive

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Patch-Choice Model

Rank patches by energy-return/time

When a forager encounters a patch, they use it until it is depleted to

the point where it is more efficient to walk to another patch

Marginal-value theorem
– foragers will move out of a patch when the rate of harvest falls
below the average for the entire environment

Patch-Choice Model

Problems…

• No experimental tests
– HGs have a specific destination in mind
– travel time between patches can actually be productive
• Three differences between human and non-humans models
– humans pursue prey for longer
– processing costs do not always affect decisions
– the total amount of food return is important

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Patch-Choice Model

Solutions…
• Different ideas of “patches”
– can provide accurate data for seasonal communities
– treat each seasonal ground as a patch
– can examine hunting/gathering as patches

Patch-Choice and Diet-Breadth models can be used together

• Patch-choice determines which patches are used
• Diet-breadth determines which resources are used within a
patch

Role of Information

Foragers rarely move at random

Foragers have knowledge of the distribution of resources within their

environment

While foraging, resources are noted and information shared with

others

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Role of Information

Variability in HG diets is a function of the degree to which perfect

versus complete information can be gathered:

• Perfect Information
– knowing the exact outcome of a particular strategy

• Complete Information
– knowledge is sufficient to allow the prediction, with certain
probability, of the outcome of a particular choice

Risk

“The unpredictable variations in some ecological or economic

variable”

• HGs respond to risk by altering their diet;

• Hayden suggests that HGs diversify their resource base in response

to risk;

• Diet-Breadth model suggests diversification results from a decrease

in the availability of a high-ranked resource;

• Energy maximization diets = risk minimization diets

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Risk:
Assessing H-G Food Gathering Decisions
— energy expended vs. calories obtained vs. risk

So….. Is hunting duck (137 kcal/100g) a good investment?

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Putting It All Together

People eat only a small

percentage of the
edible foods available in
their local environment.

Why only those?

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Winnowing alkali fly pupae,

Mono Lake, Nevada

The Foraging Spectrum

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Cree Scapulamancy

In the fall of 1987, Innu living at Mush-nipi (about 40 km south of Goose Bay) performed
scapulamancy with porcupine scapulars. The darkest and largest of the four scorch marks
represents the locations of the base camp. One morning the hunters would leave the camp
and discover signs of animals at locations (B) and (C). At the end of the day, just before
they returned to camp, they would kill some animal s at location (D), represented by a slightly
darker spot than the previous two.

Hunter-Gatherers:
Archaeological and Evolutionary Theory

Robert Bettinger

1991

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Theorizing Hunter-Gatherer Behavior

A Theoretical Spectrum

Society-based Nature-based

? ?

Where do you place Bettinger and Kelly?

An Explicitly
Ecological Approach

1976

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An Explicitly
Spatial Approach

1991

The Hard Core Ecologists

1. New Perspectives on Hunter-Gatherer Socioecology
– Eric Alden Smith and Bruce Winterhalder
2. Optimal Foraging Strategies and Hunter-Gatherer
Research in Anthropology
–Bruce Winterhalder
3. The Application of Optimal Foraging Theory to the
Analysis of Hunter-Gatherer Group Size
– Eric Alden Smith
4. Foraging Strategies in the Boreal Forest: An Analysis of
Cree Hunting and Gathering
– Bruce Winterhalder
5. Alyaware Plant Use and Optimal Foraging Theory
– James O’Connell and Kristen Hawkes
6. The Relationship between Northern Athapaskan
Settlement Patterns and Resource Distribution
– Sheri Heffley
7. Archaeological Applications of Optimal Foraging Theory:
Harvest Strategies of Aleut Hunter-Gatherers
– David Yesner
8. Optimal Foraging in a Nonmarginal Environment: A
Model of Prehistoric Subsistence in Michigan
– Arthur Keene
9. The Effects of Information Networks in Hunter-Gatherer
Societies
– James Moore

1981

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The Hard Core

Eric Alden Smith

Bruce Winterhalder

1992

Questions?

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(New) Archaeology Comes of Age

Out of the Past (1993, Pennsylvania State University and PBS)

“Use this humanistic approach to archaeology and anthropology to make
connections between past civilizations and modern societies, looking at
how societies function and change. This series helps bring cultural ecology
to light using physical evidence and scientific detective work. On-site
filming at the spectacular Mayan center of Copán, Honduras, shows
archaeologists reconstructing this ancient society. In addition, past and
present cultures in Central and North America, Africa, Europe, and the
Middle East are explored.”
Episode 3. Artisans and Traders
Explores the link between economic and cultural evolution. Hunter-
gatherers and early agriculturalists had simple divisions of labor, but today
people make a living in many ways. The proliferation of occupations and
the extreme economic interdependence of today are the result of
increasing job specialization, causing society to continually undergo
restructuring.
SFU Media Library: CC 165 O97

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