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Faunal Quantification and the Ascendance of Hunting Debate: Reevaluation of the Data from Southeastern California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jacob L. Fisher
Jacob L. Fisher*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, California State University, Sacramento, CA 95819-6106 (jlfisher@csus.edu)
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Abstract

The debate regarding the underlying motivations for large game hunting in western North America has ensued in American Antiquity for over a decade. Empirical support for the original argument for costly signaling hunting by Hildebrandt and McGuire partly derived from a regional synthesis of faunal data from southeastern California that demonstrated a spike in artiodactyl hunting during the Middle Archaic. This spike is primarily driven by the faunal assemblage from a single, highelevation site located in the White Mountains of southeastern California. It was suspected that this anomaly was a reflection of analytical differences in taxonomic identifications among faunal analysts. Contrary to expectations, it was discovered that taxonomic identifications were conservative. Instead, the previously reported number of identified specimens for artiodactyls was calculated in a manner inconsistent with other analyses in the region. When corrected, the regional data show a pattern of faunal exploitation that is consistent with expectations derived from optimal foraging theory.

Résumé

Résumé

El debate sobre las motivaciones subyacentes para la caza mayor en el oeste de América del Norte ha surgido recurrentemente en American Antiquity durante más de una década. El apoyo empírico para el argumento originalmente propuesto por Hildebrandt y McGuire acerca de la señalización costosa empleada en la caza, se sustentó parcialmente en una síntesis regional de datos faunísticos del sureste de California, que demostraba un aumento en la caza de artiodáctilos durante el Arcaico Medio. Este aumento está basado principalmente en la asociación faumstíca de un solo sitio de altura situado en las Montañas Blancas del sureste de California. Se sospechaba que esta anomalía reflejaba diferencias analtticas en las identificaciones taxonómicas realizadas por los analistas de fauna. Contrariamente a lo esperado, se descubrió que las identificaciones taxonómicas eran conservadoras. En cambio, el número de especimenes identificados para artiodáctilos publicado se había calculado de manera incompatible con otros análisis de la región. Cuando se lo corrige, los datos regionales muestran un patrón de explotación de la fauna que es consistente con las expectativas derivadas de la teoría deforrajeo óptimo.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 80 , Issue 4 , July 2015 , pp. 767 - 775
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2015

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