WhallonDJ.qxp 1/19/2011 1:36 PM Page 1 I INFORMATION AND ITS ROLE N F INFORMATION AND Robert Whallon is Curator of European O R Archaeology in the Museum of Anthropology IN HUNTER-GATHERER BANDS M and Professor in the Department of Anthro- A T pology, The University of Michigan. His I O ITS ROLE IN EDITED BY research interests encompass the evolution N of human culture, the organization, ecology, ROBERT WHALLON , W ILLIAM A. L OVIS , A N and evolution of hunter-gatherers, and the AND ROBERT K. H ITCHCOCK D Paleolithic and Mesolithic of Europe. I HUNTER-GATHERER T S Information and Its Role in Hunter-Gatherer Bands brings new R William A. Lovis is Professor in the and expanded insights into the essential and critical place of O Department of Anthropology and Curator of L E BANDS Anthropology at the MSU Museum, Michigan information in small-scale foraging societies. The contributors I N State University. Taking a multidisciplinary to this volume use examples from ethnography, archaeology, H perspective he explores hunter-gatherer eco- U EDITED BY and linguistic anthropology to explore how such societies nomic adaptation, mobility, and changing N acquire, maintain, transmit, and utilize information. Among T Holocene environments in the Great Lakes E some of the many issues addressed are the differential distri- R ROBERT WHALLON, WILLIAM A. LOVIS, Archaic, and in collaboration with the Uni- - bution of information by age and sex/gender, its contextual G AND OBERT ITCHCOCK versity of Bradford on the Mesolithic of A R K. H Yorkshire England. activation, its symbolic and material manifestations, and the T H variable scales of time and space within which information E R Robert K. Hitchcock is Professor of Geography E networks operate. The degree of commonality that crosscuts R and an adjunct Professor of Anthropology at the various approaches and analyses is noteworthy and B Michigan State University. He is also a board A allows the work as a whole to make significant advances N member of the Kalahari Peoples Fund, a non- D toward defining a theoretical understanding of the multiple S profit organization working on helping the roles of information in band societies. Such definition, at the peoples of southern Africa. Trained as an archaeologist, Hitchcock examines issues same time, allows us to isolate some of the major gaps relating to hunter-gatherer and pastoralist remaining in our knowledge of this subject and to pinpoint WHALLON sedentarization, resettlement, and land use those areas where further research will be most productive LOVIS in Africa and works on human rights of and important. HITCHCOCK indigenous peoples. ISBN 978-1-931745-63-5 Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press COTSEN I NSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY PRESS CIOA IDEAS, DEBATES, AND PERSPECTIVES 5 9 781931 745635 Press INFORMATION AND ITS ROLE IN HUNTER-GATHERER BANDS COTSEN INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY PRESS IDEAS,DEBATES, AND PERSPECTIVES Volume 5. Information and Its Role in Hunter-Gatherer Bands,edited by Robert Whallon, William A. Lovis, and Robert K. Hitchcock. Volume 4. Blood and Beauty: Organized Violence in the Art and Archaeology of Mesoamerica and Central America, edited by Heather Orr and Rex Koontz Volume 3. Settlement and Society: Essays Dedicated to Robert McCormick Adams, edited by Elizabeth C. Stone Volume 2. Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000–250 BC): The Ar- chaeological Evidence, by Lothar von Falkenhausen Volume 1. Settlement, Subsistence and Social Complexity: Essays Honoring the Legacy of Jeffrey R. Parsons, edited by Richard E. Blanton INFORMATION AND ITS ROLE IN HUNTER-GATHERER BANDS EDITED BY ROBERT WHALLON, WILLIAM A. LOVIS, AND ROBERT K. HITCHCOCK I DEAS,DEBATES, AND P ERSPECTIVES 5 THE COTSEN INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY PRESS is the publishing unit of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA. The Cotsen Institute is a premier research organ- ization dedicated to the creation, dissemination, and conservation of archaeological knowledge and heritage. It is home to both the Interdepartmental Archaeology Graduate Program and the UCLA/ Getty Master's Program in the Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials. The Cotsen Institute provides a forum for innovative faculty research, graduate ed- ucation, and public programs at UCLA in an effort to positively impact the academic, local and global communities. Established in 1973, the Cotsen Institute is at the forefront of archaeo- logical research, education, conservation and publication and is an active contributor to inter- disciplinary research at UCLA. The Cotsen Institute Press specializes in producing high-quality academic volumes in several different series, including Monographs, World Heritage and Monuments, Cotsen Advanced Seminars, and Ideas, Debates and Perspectives. The Press is committed to making the fruits of ar- chaeological research accessible to professionals, scholars, students, and the general public. We are able to do this through the generosity of Lloyd E. Cotsen, longtime Institute volunteer and benefactor, who has provided an endowment that allows us to subsidize our publishing pro- gram and produce superb volumes at an affordable price. Publishing in nine different series, our award-winning archaeological publications receive critical acclaim in both the academic and popular communities. THE COTSEN INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AT UCLA Charles Stanish, Director Gregory Areshian, Assistant Director Eric Gardner, Publications Coordinator EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE COTSEN INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY: Jeanne Arnold, Christopher B. Donnan, Shauna K. Mecartea, John Papadopoulos, James Sackett, and Charles Stanish, Willeke Wendrich EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD OF THE COTSEN INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY: Chapurukha Kusimba, Joyce Marcus, Colin Renfrew, and John Yellen This book is set in Janson Text Edited and produced by Leyba Associates, Santa Fe, New Mexico Cover design by Carol Leyba. Index by Robert and Cynthia Swanson Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Information and its role in hunter-gatherer bands / edited by Robert Whallon, William A. Lovis, Robert K. Hitchcock. p. cm.— (Ideas, debates and perspectives ; v.5) Includes index. ISBN 978-1-931745-63-5 (trade cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-931745-64-2 (trade paper : alk. paper) 1. Hunting and gathering societies. 2. Hunting and gathering societies—Information re- sources. 3. Social networks. 4. Memory—Social aspects. I. Whallon, Robert. II. Lovis, William A. III. Hitchcock, Robert K. IV. Title. V. Series. GN388.I53 2011 306.3'64—dc22 2010051109 eBook ISBN: 978-1-938770-20-3 © 2011 Regents of the University of California All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. CONTENTS FIGURES,TABLES, AND PLATES. vii PREFACE . .xi CHAPTER 1. An Introduction to Information and Its Role in Hunter-Gatherer Bands Robert Whallon . 1 CHAPTER 2. Yupik Eskimo Gendered Information Storage Patterns Caroline Funk . .29 CHAPTER 3. Space, Information and Knowledge: Ethnocartography and North American Boreal Forest Hunter-Gatherers William A. Lovis and Randolph E. Donahue . .59 CHAPTER 4. Modeling Hunter-Gatherer Information Networks: An Archaeological Case Study from the Kuril Islands Ben Fitzhugh, S. Colby Phillips, and Erik Gjesfjeld . .89 CHAPTER 5. Environmental Knowledge among Central African Hunter-Gatherers: Types of Knowledge and Intra-cultural Variations Mitsuo Ichikawa, Shiho Hattori, and HirokazuYasuoka . .117 CHAPTER 6. Where is That Job? Hunter-Gatherer Information Systems in Complex Social Environments in the Eastern Kalahari Desert, Botswana Robert K. Hitchcock and James I. Ebert . .133 v vi INFORMATION AND ITS ROLE IN HUNTER-GATHERER BANDS CHAPTER 7. Borrowed Names and Indexical Function in the Northern Uto-Aztecan Botanical Lexicon Jane H. Hill . .167 CHAPTER 8. Rite, Ritual and Materiality of Information in Mesolithic Europe Marek Zvelebil . .181 CHAPTER 9. The Role of Information Exchange in the Colonization of Sahul Peter Veth, Nicola Stern, Jo McDonald, Jane Balme, and Iain Davidson . .203 CHAPTER 10. Information Exchange amongst Hunter-Gatherers of the Western Desert of Australia Jo McDonald and Peter Veth . .221 CHAPTER 11. Rock Art Information among Hunter-Gatherers in Northwest Patagonia: An Assessment of Environmental and Territorial Models Vivian Scheinsohn . .235 CHAPTER 12. Visits, “Fuegians” and Information Networks Luis Alberto Borrero, Fabiana María Martin, and Ramiro Barberena . .249 CHAPTER 13. Foraging for Information among Foragers—An Afterword H. Martin Wobst . .267 CHAPTER 14. A Synopsis of Information and its Role in Hunter-Gatherer Bands Robert Whallon and William A. Lovis . .281 PLATES . .289 REFERENCES . .297 LIST OF AUTHORS . .351 INDEX . .353 FIGURES,TABLES, AND PLATES FIGURES Figure 2.1. Yup’ik Alaska . 31 Figure 2.2. The Triangle Research Area . 32 Figure 3.1. Southeastern Labrador as Sketched by Mathieu Medikabo . 65 Figure 3.2. Map of Southeastern Labrador by Mathieu Medikabo. 65 Figure 3.3. Map by Cibic of the river Atikwabe'o. 66 Figure 3.4. Map by Cibic of the river Atikwabe'o. 67 Figure 3.5. Leacock’s reproduction of a map by Mathieu Medikabo of the Natashquan drainage trapping area and arrangements. 70 Figure 3.6. Hunting territory map by "Mani", Ouiatchouan river system and Long Lake. 72 Figure 3.7. Hunting territory map by "Matsina'bec", Otopikouba river system . 72 Figure 3.8. Map of Pien Andre's winter camp at head of the Ashwanipi River/Petisikapau Lake. 73 Figure 3.9. Map of Andrew Mackenzie's winter camp between Menihek and Petisikapau Lakes. 73 Figure 3.10. Six men portaging a 10 m long birchbark canoe, Long Point, Quebec, Canada, ca. 1900 . 78 Figure 3.11. Mesolithic partitioning of space in England based on microlith styles, and displaying partitioning by drainage and landscape . 82 vii viii INFORMATION AND ITS ROLE IN HUNTER-GATHERER BANDS -Figure 3.12. Hypothetical partitioning of space in the Yorkshire Dales research area based on drainage features. 83 Figure 4.1. Adaptive strategies used by hunter-gatherer bands to maintain information for mitigating environmental unpredictability. 88 Figure 4.2. Organization of information networks operating at different spatial scales. 92 Figure 4.3. Environmental variability at different time scales .