Climate Change and Culture Change on the Southern Coast of British Columbia 2400-1200 Cal
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Society for American Archaeology Climate Change and Culture Change on the Southern Coast of British Columbia 2400-1200 Cal. B.P.: An Hypothesis Author(s): Dana Lepofsky, Ken Lertzman, Douglas Hallett, Rolf Mathewes Source: American Antiquity, Vol. 70, No. 2 (Apr., 2005), pp. 267-293 Published by: Society for American Archaeology Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40035704 Accessed: 17/03/2010 02:18 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=sam. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Society for American Archaeology is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Antiquity. http://www.jstor.org CLIMATE CHANGE AND CULTURE CHANGE ON THE SOUTHERN COAST OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 2400-1200 CAL. B.P.: AN HYPOTHESIS Dana Lepofsky, Ken Lertzman,Douglas Hallett, and Rolf Mathewes The Marpole phase of the Gulf of Georgia, SW British Columbia (2400-1200 cal B.P.) is recognized by many archaeolo- gists as a significantperiod of culture change. Concurrentwith this culturalphase is a climatic regime characterizedby a substantial increase in forest fires associated with persistent summerdrought: the Fraser ValleyFire Period (FVFP). Cul- turally,the Marpolephase is characterizedby the widespreadappearance of large houses, standardizedart forms, and elab- orate burials.Interactions among people of this regionintensified and were, as today,economically, socially, and ideologically linked to the lower Fraser River system. Ecologically, the FVFP likely resulted in a regional decline in salmon abundance and/or predictability,especially in small streams and offshore areas, but also more berries and wildlife, and easier over- land access via trail networks.The ecological diversity of the lower Fraser region, both terrestrialand riverine, resulted in both more abundantand more predictable resources than surroundingareas during this period of changing climate. We hypothesize that social and economic networks throughoutthe Gulf of Georgia were solidified during the Marpole phase to ensure access to Fraser resources and allow social buffering of resource uncertainty.We suggest that the differential availability of resources also allowed and encouraged individuals who had access to Fraser Valleyresources to gain rela- tively greater prestige. La Fase Marpole del Golfo de Georgia (2400-1200 cal a.P.) en el Suroestede British Columbia,Canada, se reconocepor muchosarqueologos como unperiodo de cambio cultural importante.Contempordneo a estafase cultural,hubo un regimen climdticocaracterizado por un incrementosubstancial de incendiosforestales asociados con sequias veraniegaspersistentes: el llamado Periodo de Fuego del ValleFraser (FVFP). Culturalmente,la Fase Marpole se caracterizapor la amplia apari- cion de casas grandes,formas estandarizadasde arte y entierroselaborados. Las interaccionesentre la gente de esta region se intensificarony estuvieron,como hoy dia, economica,social e ideologicamenterelacionadas al sistemadel Bajo Rio Fraser. Ecologicamente,el FVFP pudo ocasionar una disminucionen la abundanciay/o predictibilidaddel salmon, especialmente en arroyospequenos y en areas mar adentro,pew tambienun incrementoen bayas y vida silvestre, asi como un acceso por tierra mdsfdcil a traves de una red de senderos. La diversidadecologica de la region del Bajo Fraser,tanto terrestrecomo ribereha,resulto en una mayorabundancia y predictibilidadde recursosque en areas circunvecinasdurante este periodo de clima cambiante.Tenemos la hipotesis de que las redes sociales y economicas en el Golfo de Georgia se solidificarondurante la Fase Marpolepara asegurar el acceso a los recursosdel Fraser y permitirun amortiguamientosocial ante la incertidum- bre de recursos.Sugerimos que la disponibilidaddiferencial de recursostambien permitio y promovioque los individuosque tenian acceso a los recursosdel valle del Rio Fraser obtuvieranun relativomayor prestigio. humansocieties are always influ- affordingit a relatively minor explanatoryrole. encedby theirsurrounding natural envi- Environmentallybased models fell out of favorin ronments,understanding the natureand partbecause of the plethoraof deterministicmod- extentof this influenceon past societies has never els thatdid not recognizethe potentialfor ancient been straightforward.In the past few decades, people to choose among a range of responsesto archaeologistshave moved away from castingthe environmentalshifts (Brumfiel1992). The disfa- environmentas a majordriver of social changeto vor was furthercompounded by the fact that the Dana Lepofsky Departmentof Archaeology,Simon FraserUniversity, Burnaby, B.C. Ken Lertzman School of Resource and EnvironmentalManagement, Simon FraserUniversity, Burnaby, B.C. Douglas Hallett Centerfor EnvironmentalSciences & QuaternarySciences Program,Box 5694, NorthernArizona University,Flagstaff, AZ Rolf Mathewes Biological Sciences, Simon FraserUniversity, Burnaby, B.C. AmericanAntiquity, 70(2), 2005, pp. 267-293 Copyright© 2005 by the Society for AmericanArchaeology 267 268 AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 70, No. 2, 2005 distinctionbetween cause and correlationin rela- durationmay result only in subtle changes to the tions between cultureand climate was often not distributionof resources, which may not have clearlymade. In addition,researchers became frus- promptedchanges in humanbehavior that left an tratedwith the loose fitbetween regional- scale pale- archaeologicalimprint. oenvironmental data and shifts observed in Potentialresponses to increasedenvironmental local-scalearchaeological sequences. Finally, dif- productivityare equally varied. Since actionsunder ferencesin the resolutionof the paleoenvironmen- such circumstancesare not drivenby concernsof tal and archaeologicalchronologies further added immediate survival, there may be a lag time in to the lack of confidencein environmentalchange responses, or people may choose not to change as an explanatoryfactor (e.g., commentsin Jones behaviorat all. Conversely,an upturnin environ- etal. 1999). mentalconditions can providethe contextfor sig- In recent years, environmentallybased expla- nificantsocial changes, such as the emergenceof nationsfor culturechange have seen some resur- social complexity(e.g., Priceand Feinman 1995). gence in the North American archaeological Experimentation,intensification of resourcepro- literature(e.g., deMenocal2001 ; Hauget al. 2003; duction,and increased competition are amongthe Joneset al. 1999;Sandweiss et al. 1999).This is in specificcultural responses which have been linked largepart because of the burgeoningof the various to positive environmentalshifts (Cannon 1996; techniques that allow spatially and temporally Clarkand Blake 1994;Hayden 1995; Prentiss and detailedpaleoecological and paleoclimaticrecon- Chatters2003). structions.Archaeologists have increasingly paired Finally,given that most preindustrial landscapes withexperts in "paleo-disciplines"to developpale- are ecologically complex, climatic shifts likely oenvironmentalsequences that are appropriateto resultedin diverseecological responsesthat were particulararchaeological times and places (e.g., stratifiedover the landscapemosaic. Both positive Hutchinsonand McMillan 1997; Moss et al. 2005). and negativechanges to resourceavailability for Further,as a discipline, we have become more ancientpeoples are likely to be found in different sophisticated in formulating models of culture locations within a single landscape.For instance, changethat mesh the roles of environmentalvari- a warmingand dryingtrend may reducethe pro- abilitywith those of culturalchoices (e.g., Dahlin ductivityof low-elevationstreams at the sametime 2002; McGovern 1994; Rosen 1995; Williams as it makes nearbyhigh-elevation resources more 2002). availableand productive.Teasing out the diverse Making the case for a causal relationship cultural responses requires detailed ecological betweenchanges in environmentand culture is dif- reconstructionscoupled with independent data ficultbecause it requiresdemonstrating why peo- aboutthe relativeimportance of variousresources ple respondedto particularenvironmental shifts. in past social and economic systems. Forinstance, pre-existing cultural practices such as On the NorthwestCoast of NorthAmerica, sev- long-termfood storagecan buffernegative envi- eralresearchers have proposedthat environmental ronmentalshifts that are short-lived, infrequent, or shifts played a majorrole in culturaldevelopment mild in theireffects such thatthere is no apparent at varioustimes in the past. Not surprisingly,the cultural"response"