Bad year economics at Birchy Lake
Faculty Advisor
Date
2018
Keywords
cultural adaptation, climate change
Abstract (summary)
Anthropologists have long been interested in understanding how societies cope with risk and uncertainty in their subsistence economies. The topic has been of particular interest to the study of hunters and gatherers, where risk and uncertainty are often conceptualized as problems of the natural rather than social environment. This paper focuses on an archaeological site located in the interior of the island of Newfoundland that was inhabited by Amerindian people hunting caribou in the spring of the year, presumably because they were having difficulty procuring marine resources at the coast. The plight of these Amerindians, at a time when they were sharing the island with Paleo-Inuit peoples and climate change was undermining islanders’ access to critical marine resources, highlights the complex play between cultural adaptation, social and historical processes, and the natural environment.
Publication Information
Holly, D. H. Jr., Prince, P., and Erwin, J.C. (2018). Bad year economics at Birchy Lake. Journal of Anthropological Research, 74, (2): 201-231. https://doi.org/10.1086/697151
Notes
Item Type
Article
Language
English
Rights
All Rights Reserved