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Ethnography and Prehistoric Archaeology in Australia

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Ethnography and Prehistoric Archaeology in Australia JOBNAME: AA Vol 15#2 PAGE: 1 SESS: 18 OUTPUT: Thu Jun 20 12:20:55 1996 /xypage/worksmart/tsp000/71052j/2pu JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 15, 137–159 (1996) ARTICLE NO. 0005 Ethnography and Prehistoric Archaeology in Australia HARRY ALLEN* Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019 Auckland, New Zealand Received November 29, 1994; revision received May 30, 1995; accepted June 23, 1995 After a review of ethnographic approaches to Australian archaeology, this paper discusses food exchanges as an example of how Aboriginal society organizes production and social reproduction in gender specific terms. This goes well beyond the orthodoxy that men hunt and women gather. Evidence that food and other exchanges are reflected in the contemporary archaeological record is presented together with an outline of a debate between Gould and Binford about this issue. The structuring of production and exchange along gender lines in Aboriginal society is so pervasive that some form of patterning along these lines is to be expected. This is the case even in archaeo- logical sites of long occupation where the original layout of household structures may have been destroyed. Exchanges at the individual and household level should also be preserved in the form of reduction sequences, stone raw materials and small refuse items such as chipping debris and bone fragments. © 1996 Academic Press, Inc. INTRODUCTION tion that the repetition of short term events responsible for the building up of the ar- The joining of ethnography with archae- chaeological record are themselves ordered ology by the use of either direct historical by structures, which like Braudel’s longue or general comparative approaches is terri- duree (Sherratt 1992:139–140), can take on tory that has been well worked over by ar- an independent temporal existence that is chaeologists (Fletcher 1992, Gould and amenable to archaeological analysis. Watson 1982, Murray and Walker 1988, Fletcher (1989:68–72) has suggested that Smith 1992, Wylie 1982). In order to bring archaeology can make a distinctive contri- ethnographic and archaeological observa- bution to social theory not by copying theo- tions into some form of convergence, Smith ries from sister disciplines such as biology, (1992:26), following an argument devel- history, anthropology, or sociology but oped by Binford (1981), suggests that we rather by developing its own theoretical ap- differentiate between ethnographic time, the proach to the relationship between the ac- observation of contemporary events and tive and material components of human be- episodes over a short period of time, and haviour and how these find form in the ar- archaeological time, the study of patterns chaeological record. It was the pursuit of produced over long intervals (cf., Dunnell’s this goal that sent archaeologists out to [1982] “space-like” and “time-like” study extant societies in order to make sys- frames). Fletcher (1992:36) argues that a tematic observations of archaeologically better understanding of the archaeological relevant variables (Gould 1980, Gould and past will only emerge when we accept that Watson 1982). there was a hierarchy of processes operat- Archaeologists studying the long time ing at differing scales and rates over differ- period of Australian archaeology and those ent magnitudes of time. Similarly, struc- involved in ethnoarchaeological studies of tural archaeologists work on the assump- settlements, technology, and subsistence have seen their respective approaches as being either in conflict or competition (His- * E-mail: [email protected] cock 1983). While Smith (1992) and Fletcher 137 0278-4165/96 $18.00 Copyright © 1996 by Academic Press, Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. JOBNAME: AA Vol 15#2 PAGE: 2 SESS: 18 OUTPUT: Thu Jun 20 12:20:55 1996 /xypage/worksmart/tsp000/71052j/2pu 138 HARRY ALLEN (1992) suggest that archaeological and eth- els of behaviour before they can assist ar- noarchaeological studies should be seen as chaeological interpretation. complementary parts of an analytic hierar- This paper examines ethnographic ap- chy, others argue that the archaeological proaches to Australian prehistoric archae- record is the product of an infinitely vari- ology. Observations of Aboriginal food ex- able set of ecological, behavioral, deposi- changes are discussed and compared with tional, and erosional processes. Conse- the archaeological analysis of contempo- quently, they claim the record is not ame- rary Aboriginal camp sites. A degree of cor- nable to interpretive theories based on relation between gender-based exchanges short term observations of individuals, or and the location and contents of household their interactions with one another and camps is demonstrated. While it is gener- with the ecological systems of which they ally acknowledged that the archaeological are a part (Murray 1987, Stern 1994:102). record will reflect both technological and Stern (1994:101), following Walker and gender considerations, it is concluded that Bambach (1971), suggests that the accumu- this is also true of exchange relationships. lation of sediments and cultural remains at archaeological sites produces “time aver- ETHNOGRAPHIC APPROACHES TO aged” assemblages or composites which AUSTRALIAN ARCHAEOLOGY span long periods of time. Neither the Ethnographic approaches to prehistoric original community structure nor short archaeology in Australia have a long his- term relationships between community tory. In a formal sense they began in the structure and ecological fluctuations can be 1920s with Norman Tindale’s exemplary discerned from this record, but only persis- ethnographic work (1925), and that of oth- tent, long term trends. While Stern is talk- ers sponsored by the Anthropological ing about the interpretations of the Middle Board of South Australia. To these can be Pleistocene archaeological record in Africa, added D. F. Thomson’s (1939) work in she (1994:96) makes it clear that her com- northern Australia, some of which tried to ments apply to any part of the archaeologi- relate seasonal movements with changes in cal record that involves behavioural or eco- material culture. In 1965, Tindale (p. 162) logical processes preserved over periods of argued that continued excavation in rock- 1000 to 10,000 years. Her strictures are shelters would provide only an incomplete equally applicable to the Australian past picture of the Aboriginal past. whether distant or recent. This is grist to the mill of Australian archaeologists who . it is high time that at least a few archaeolo- are suspicious of ethnographic explana- gists should . emerge from their cave holes to tions and rarely use ethnographic informa- study at first hand the data provided by living peoples. tion to create hypotheses against which their data might be interpreted. There was a call for research on the open Murray and Walker (1988:249) argue that sites Aborigines used as campsites and for the production of archaeological knowl- the incorporation of a sense of ethno- edge cannot exist without the use of some graphic “reality” into archaeological expla- form of analogical reasoning. They differ nations (Gould 1982, Peterson 1968, 1971, from many archaeologists in that they be- Thomson 1939). It was not until the period lieve the interpretation of the archaeologi- 1960–1973 that using ethnohistorical or eth- cal record cannot be based on so-called nographic accounts to flesh out and under- “commonsense.” Similarly, Binford (1991: stand the archaeological record became 277) stresses that ethnoarchaeological ob- more common. In general, the early at- servations must be transformed into mod- tempts (Allen 1968, 1972, Hiatt 1965, Peter- JOBNAME: AA Vol 15#2 PAGE: 3 SESS: 18 OUTPUT: Thu Jun 20 12:20:55 1996 /xypage/worksmart/tsp000/71052j/2pu ETHNOGRAPHY IN AUSTRALIA 139 son 1971, 1973, White 1967a, 1967b, White haps inevitable that much of the emphasis and Peterson 1971) concentrated on re- on processes and variability in the Austra- gional or seasonal differences in diet, camp- lian archaeological record would concen- site location and material culture and stone trate on the manufacture and use of stone tool-use and manufacture. The archaeologi- tools, use-wear analysis, and the rationing cal correlates of observed ethnographic be- of raw-materials (Hayden 1979, Hiscock haviours remained poorly developed in 1986, Kamminga 1982). these works though Allen (1972) developed Useful information about Aboriginal ma- models of optimising gathering strategies terial culture was assembled by D. S. and camp-site location for the Darling Davidson between 1929 and 1951 (e.g., River Valley with which the archaeological Davidson 1934). Anderson (1988:129–132) data from a regional survey was compared. notes that studies of Australian Aboriginal Hayden as part of his ethnoarchaeological economy between the 1920s and 1960s study (1979) included the mapping and ex- largely took an atheoretical attitude and cavation of Western Desert camp sites for confined their comments to descriptions of which he had observational and informant material culture and food getting tech- data and thus directly brought ethno- niques. After this time, however, with the graphic and archaeological analysis to- demise of museum approaches to material gether. The emphasis on the ethnographic culture and technology, even such narrowly study of diet, seasonal changes in camp site focussed studies were rarely carried out. locality and collecting behavior, and
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