Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-14T07:42:22.467Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Wealth of Beads: Evidence for Material Wealth-Based Inequality in the Salish Sea Region, 4000–3500 Cal B.P.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Gary Coupland ,
David Bilton ,
Terence Clark ,
Jerome S. Cybulski ,
Gay Frederick ,
Alyson Holland ,
Bryn Letham  and
Gretchen Williams
Gary Coupland*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, 19 Russell Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 2S2
David Bilton
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, 19 Russell Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 2S2
Terence Clark
Affiliation:
Canadian Museum of History, 100 Rue Laurier, Gatineau, QC, Canada, KIA 0M8
Jerome S. Cybulski
Affiliation:
Canadian Museum of History, 100 Rue Laurier, Gatineau, QC, Canada, KIA 0M8
Gay Frederick
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Vancouver Island University, 900 Fifth Street, Nanaimo, B.C., Canada V9R 5S5
Alyson Holland
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8S 4L9
Bryn Letham
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, 6303 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1Z1
Gretchen Williams
Affiliation:
Canadian Museum of History, 100 Rue Laurier, Gatineau, QC, Canada, KIA 0M8
*
coupland@chass.utoronto.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Archaeologists working in the Salish Sea (Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound) region of the Pacific Northwest have unearthed human burials and non-mortuary features dated to 4000–3500 cal B.P. containing tens and even hundreds of thousands of stone and shell disc beads. Several sites are reported here, including burials recently excavated from site DjRw–14 located in the territory of the shíshálh Nation. We argue that the disc beads constituted an important form of material wealth at this time, based on the amount of labor that would have been required to produce them and the capacity for beads to accrue in value after their production. A model of material wealth-based inequality is developed for a period much older than many archaeologists working in the region have previously thought.

Des archéologues travaillant dans la région de la mer des Salish (Le détroit de Géorgie et de Puget Sound) de la côte nord-ouest du Pacifique ont déterré des sépultures humaines ainsi que des éléments non-mortuaires datant de 4000–3500 cal B.P. comprenant dix et même des centaines de mille perles enforme de disque fabriquées de pierre et de coquillage. Dans cet article, plusieurs sites sont discutés incluant des sépultures excavées récemment du site DjRw-14 situé dans le territoire de la Nation shíshálh. Nous proposons que les perles constituaient un format important pour démontrer la richesse matérielle à cette époque étant donné la quantité de travail requis pour leur production et la capacité des perles d’augmenter de valeur après leur production. Un modèle d’inégalité basé sur la richesse matérielle est développé pour une époque beaucoup plus ancienne que le croyaient les archéologues auparavant.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 81 , Issue 2 , April 2016 , pp. 294 - 315
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by the Society for American Archaeology.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Ames, Kenneth M. 1981 The Evolution of Social Ranking on the Northwest Coast of North America. American Antiquity 46:789–805.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ames, Kenneth M. 2001 Slaves, Chiefs and Labor on the Northern Northwest Coast. World Archaeology 33:1–17.Google Scholar
Ames, Christopher J.H., Costopoulos, Andre, and Wren, Colin 2010 8,000 Years of Technological Change in the Gulf of Georgia: Is there a Major Transition at 4850 cal B.P.? Canadian Journal of Archaeology 34:32–63.Google Scholar
Ames, Kenneth M., and Maschner, Herbert D.G. 1999 Peoples of the Northwest Coast: Their Archaeology and Prehistory. Thames and Hudson, New York.Google Scholar
Appadurai, Arjun (editor) 1986 The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Areas Consulting Archaeologists 1994 Archaeological Investigations at Tsawwassen, B.C. (Volume II). Submitted to British Columbia Archaeology Branch, Victoria. Copies available from British Columbia Archaeology Branch, Victoria.Google Scholar
Areas Consulting Archaeologists 1999 Archaeological Investigations at Tsawwassen, B.C. (Volume IV). Submitted to British Columbia Archaeology Branch, Victoria. Copies available from British Columbia Archaeology Branch, Victoria.Google Scholar
Blanton, Richard E., Feinman, Gary M., Kowalewski, Stephen A., and Peregrine, Peter N. 1996 A Dual-Processual Theory for the Evolution of Mesoamerican Civilization. Current Anthropology 37:1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boas, Franz 1897 The Social Organization and Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians. Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1895, pp. 311–738. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Bowles, Samuel, Smith, Eric Alden, and Mulder, Monique Borgerhoff 2010 The Emergence and Persistence of Inequality in Pre-modern Societies. Current Anthropology 51:7–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, Christopher 2013 OxCal Program, Version 4.2.3. Electronic document, http://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk/embed.php?File=oxcal.html, accessed August 8, 2015.Google Scholar
Buikstra, Jane E., and Charles, Douglas K. 1999 Centering the Ancestors: Cemeteries, Mounds and Sacred Landscapes of the Ancient North American Mid-continent. In Archaeologies of Landscapes: Contemporary Perspectives, edited by Wendy Ashmore and A. Bernard Knapp, pp. 201–228. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.Google Scholar
Burchell, Meghan 2006 Gender, Grave Goods and Status in British Columbia Burials. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 30:251–271.Google Scholar
Burley, David V. 1979 Specialization and the Evolution of Complex Society in the Gulf of Georgia Region. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 3:131–143.Google Scholar
Burley, David V. 1980 Marpole: Anthropological Reconstructions of a Prehistoric Northwest Coast Culture Type. Department of Archaeology Publication No. 8. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby.Google Scholar
Burley, David V. 1989 Senewélets: Culture History of the Nanaimo Coast Salish and the False Narrows Midden. Royal British Columbia Museum Memoir No. 2. Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria.Google Scholar
Burley, David V., and Knüsel, Christopher 1989 Burial Patterns and Archaeological Interpretation: Problems in the Recognition of Ranked Society in the Coast Salish Region. Paper presented at The Circum-Pacific Prehistory Conference, Seattle.Google Scholar
Cannon, Aubrey 1998 Contingency and Agency in the Growth of Northwest Coast Maritime Economies. Arctic Anthropology 35:57–67.Google Scholar
Cannon, Aubrey 2002 Sacred Power and Seasonal Settlement on the Central Northwest Coast. In Beyond Foraging and Collecting: Evolutionary Change in Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems, edited by Ben Fitzhugh and Junko Habu, pp. 311–338. Kluwer Academic-Plenum, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cannon, Aubrey, and Yang, Dongya Y. 2006 Early Storage and Sedentism on the Pacific Northwest Coast: Ancient DNA Analysis of Salmon Remains from Namu, British Columbia. American Antiquity 71:123–140.Google Scholar
Carlson, Roy L. 1991 The Northwest Coast Before A.D. 1600. Proceedings of the Great Oceans Conference 1:109–136. North Pacific Studies Center, Oregon Historical Society, Portland.Google Scholar
Carlson, Roy L. 1996 Introduction to Early Human Occupation in British Columbia. In Early Human Occupation in British Columbia, edited by Roy L. Carlson and L. Dalla Bona, pp. 3–10. University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver.Google Scholar
Carlson, Roy L. 1998 Coastal British Columbia in the Light of North Pacific Maritime Adaptations. Arctic Anthropology 35:23–35.Google Scholar
Chisholm, Brian, Erie Nelson, D., and Schwarz, Henry P. 1983 Marine and Terrestrial Protein in Prehistoric Diets on the British Columbia Coast. Current Anthropology 24:396–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Codere, Helen 1950 Fighting with Property: A Study of Kwakiutl Potlatching and Warfare, 1792–1930. Monographs of the American Ethnological Society, Vol. 18. J.J. Augustin, New York.Google Scholar
Croes, Dale R., and Hackenberger, Steven 1988 Hoko River Archaeological Complex: Modeling Prehistoric Northwest Coast Economic Evolution. In Prehistoric Economies of the Pacific Northwest Coast, edited by Barry L. Isaac, pp. 19–86. Research in Economic Anthropology, Supplement 3, JAI Press, Greenwich.Google Scholar
Curtin, Joanne 1991 Archaeological Investigations at Tsawwssen, B.C., Volume III, Human Osteology. Submitted to British Columbia Archaeology Branch, Victoria. Copies available from British Columbia Archaeology Branch, Victoria.Google Scholar
Cybulski, Jerome S. 1991 Observations on Labret Wear. In 1989 and 1990 Crescent Beach Excavations, Final Report. The Origins of the Northwest Coast Ethnographic Pattern: The Place of the Locarno Beach Phase (Appendix I), edited by R.G. Matson, Heather Pratt, and Lisa Rankin. Unpublished Report on file, Archaeology Branch, Victoria, British Columbia, and Laboratory of Archaeology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Copies available from British Columbia Archaeology Branch, Victoria.Google Scholar
Cybulski, Jerome S. 2011 The Osteology of an Early Pacific Human Skeleton from the Bible Camp Site (DjRw-14), Sechelt, British Columbia. Manuscript on file, Library Archives (Archaeology Ms. 5240), Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada.Google Scholar
Donald, Leland 1997 Aboriginal Slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America. University of California Press, Berkeley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drucker, Philip, and Heizer, Robert F. 1967 To Make My Name Good: A Re-examination of the Southern Kwakiutl Potlatch. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Duff, Wilson 1981 The Killer Whale Copper: A Chief’s Memorial to His Son. In The World Is as Sharp as a Knife: An Anthology in Honour of Wilson Duff, edited by Donald N. Abbott, pp. 153–156. British Columbia Provincial Museum, Victoria.Google Scholar
Elmendorf, William W. 1971 Coast Salish Status Ranking and Intergroup Ties. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 27:353–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elmendorf, William W. 1974 The Structure of Twana Culture. Garland Publishing Inc., New York.Google Scholar
Feinman, Gary M. 1995 The Emergence of Inequality: A Focus on Strategies and Processes. In Foundations of Social Inequality, edited by T. Douglas Price and Gary M. Feinman, pp. 255–279. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flad, Rowan 2012 Bronze, Jade, Gold, and Ivory: Valuable Objects in Ancient Sichuan. In The Construction of Value in the Ancient World, edited by John K. Papadopoulos and Gary Urton, pp. 306–335. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, Los Angeles.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francis, Peter Jr. 1989 The Manufacture of Beads from Shell. In Proceedings of the 1986 Shell Bead Conference: Selected Papers, edited by Charles F. Hayes, Lynn Ceci, and Connie Cox Bodner, pp. 25–35. Research Records No. 20, Rochester Museum and Science Center, Rochester, New York.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Lynne G. 1980 Mississippian Mortuary Practices: A Case Study of Two Cemeteries in the Lower Illinois Valley. Scientific Papers No. 4, Northwestern University Archaeological Program, Evanston, Illinois.Google Scholar
Graeber, David 2001 Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Dreams. Palgrave, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grier, Colin 2006 Temporality in Northwest Coast Households. In Household Archaeology on the Northwest Coast, edited by Elizabeth A. Sobel, D. Ann Trieu Gahr, and Kenneth M. Ames, pp. 97–119. International Monographs in Pre-history, Archaeological Series No. 16, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grier, Colin 2007 Consuming the Recent for Constructing the Ancient: The Role of Ethnography in Coast Salish Archaeological Interprestation. In Be of Good Mind: Essays on the Coast Salish, edited by Bruce G. Miller, pp. 284–307. UBC Press, Vancouver.Google Scholar
Grier, Colin 2014 Which Way Forward? Canadian Journal of Archaeology 38:135–139.Google Scholar
Ham, Leonard C, Yip, Arlene, Kullar, Leila, and Cannon, Debbie 1986 A Charles Culture Fishing Village. Submitted to British Columbia Archaeology Branch, Victoria. Copies available from British Columbia Archaeology Branch, Victoria.Google Scholar
Holland, Alyson 2014 The Osteology of Burials 3 and 4 at DjRw-14, Sechelt, British Columbia. Manuscript on file. Canadian Museum of History. Gatineau, QC.Google Scholar
Kan, Sergei 1989 Symbolic Immortality: The Tlingit Potlatch of the 19th Century. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Katzie Development Corporation Archaeology 2010 Archaeological Excavations at DhRp-52: Final Report. Submitted to British Columbia Archaeology Branch, Victoria. Copies available from British Columbia Archaeology Branch, Victoria.Google Scholar
Kroeber, Alfred L. 1923 American Culture and the Northwest Coast. American Anthropologist 25:1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lévi-Strauss, Claude 1982 The Way of the Masks. (Translated by Sylvia Modelski). University of Washington Press, Seattle.Google Scholar
Lyman, Lee R. 1991 Prehistory of the Oregon Coast: The Effects of Excavation Strategies and Assemblage Size on Archaeological Inquiry. Academic Press, San Diego.Google Scholar
Mackie, Quentin 2001 Settlement Archaeology in a Fjordland Archipelago: Network Analysis, Social Practice and the Built Environment of Western Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada Since 2,000 BP. BAR International Series 926. Archaeo-press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Roger, McNeely, Dyke, Arthur S., and Southon, John R. 2006 Canadian Marine Reservoir Ages, Preliminary Data Assessment, Open File 5049, Geological Survey Canada, Ottawa.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, Yvonne 2006 Houses and Domestication on the Northwest Coast. In Household Archaeology on the Northwest Coast, edited by Elizabeth A. Sobel, D. Ann Trieu Gahr, and Kenneth M. Ames, pp. 37–56. International Monographs in Pre-history, Archaeological Series No. 16, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martindale, Andrew R., and Letham, Bryn 2011 Causalities and Models within the Archaeological Construction of Political Order on the Northwest Coast of North America. In The Archaeology of Politics: the Materiality of Political Practice and Action in the Past, edited by Peter G. Johansen and Andrew M. Bauer, pp. 323–353. Cambridge Scholars Press, Newcastle. .Google Scholar
Maschner, Herbert D. G. 1991 The Emergence of Cultural Complexity on the Northern Northwest Coast. Antiquity 65:924–934.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matson, R.G. (editor) 1976 The Glenrose Cannery Site. National Museums of Canada, Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada, Paper No. 52, Ottawa.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matson, R.G. 1992 The Evolution of Northwest Coast Subsistence. In Long-Term Subsistence Change in Prehistoric North America, edited by Dale R. Croes, Rebecca A. Hawkins, and Barry L. Isaac, pp. 367–428. Research in Economic Anthropology, Supplement 6. JAI Press, Greenwich.Google Scholar
Matson, R.G., and Coupland, Gary 1995 The Prehistory of the Northwest Coast. Academic Press, San Diego.Google Scholar
Miller, Heather M.L. 2007 Archaeological Approaches to Technology. Academic Press, Boston.Google Scholar
Milner, George R., Buikstra, Jane E., and Wiant, Michael D. 2009 Archaic Burial Sites in the Midcontinent. In Archaic Societies: Diversity and Complexity across the Midcontinent, edited by Thomas A. Emerson, Dale L. McElrath, and Andrew C. Fortier, pp. 115–135. SUNY Press, Albany.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Donald H. 1963 Esilao: A Pithouse Village in the Fraser Canyon. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Donald H. 1971 Archaeology of the Gulf of Georgia Area, a Natural Region and Its Culture Types. Syesis 4(1): 1–228.Google Scholar
Morris, Ian 1991 The Archaeology of Ancestors: The Saxe/Goldstein Hypothesis Revisited. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 1:147–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moss, Madonna 2011 Northwest Coast Archaeology as Deep History. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Papadopolous, John K., and Urton, Gary 2012 Introduction: The Construction of Value in the Ancient World. In The Construction of Value In the Ancient World, edited by John K. Papadopolous and Gary Urton, pp. 1–47. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Patenaude, Valerie 1985 Pitt River Archaeological Site: A Coast Salish Seasonal Camp on the Lower Fraser River. Submitted to British Columbia Archaeology Branch, Victoria. Copies available from British Columbia Archaeology Branch, Victoria.Google Scholar
Prentiss, Anna Marie, and Walsh, Matthew 2016 Was There a Neolithic “(R)evolution’ in North America’s Pacific Northwest Region? Exploring Alternative Models of Socio-Economic and Political Change. In UNESCO World Heritage Papers, edited by Nuria Sans. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Paris, in press.Google Scholar
Prentiss, Anna Marie, Foor, Thomas A., Cross, Guy, Harris, Lucille E., and Wanzenried, Michael 2012 The Cultural Evolution of Material Wealth-Based Inequality at Bridge River, British Columbia. American Antiquity 77:542–564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reimer, Paula J., Bard, Edouard, Bayliss, Alex, Warren Beck, J., Blackwell, Paul G., Ramsey, Christopher Bronk, Buck, Caitlin E., Cheng, Hai, Lawrence Edwards, R., Friedrich, Michael, Grootes, Pieter M., Guilderson, Thomas P., Haflidason, Haflidi, Hajdas, Irka, Hatté, Christine, Heaton, Timothy J., Hoffmann, Dirk L., Hogg, Alan G., Hughen, Konrad A., Felix Kaiser, K., Kromer, Bernd, Manning, Sturt W, Niu, Mu, Reimer, Ron W., Richards, David A., Marian Scott, E., Southon, John R., Staff, Richard A., Turney, Christian S. M., and van der Plicht, Johannes 2013 IntCal 13 and Marine 13 Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curves 0–50,000 Years Cal BP. Radiocarbon 55:1869–1887.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renfrew, Colin 2012 Systems of Value among Material Things: The Nexus of Fungibility and Measure. In The Construction of Value in the Ancient World, edited by John K. Papadopoulos and Gary Urton, pp. 249–260. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, Los Angeles.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowley-Conwy, Peter 2001 Time, Change, and the Archaeology of Hunter-Gatherers: How Original is the “Original Affluent Society”? In Hunter-Gatherers in Interdisciplinary Perspective, edited by Katherine Painter-Brick, Robert Layton, and Peter Rowley-Conwy, pp. 39–72. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Roy, Cheryl, Janzen, Jennifer, and Plant, Michael 1994 Report of Archaeological Investigations at DeRv-1,51, Cowichan Bay, British Columbia. Submitted to British Columbia Archaeology Branch, Victoria. Copies available from British Columbia Archaeology Branch, Victoria.Google Scholar
Ruyle, Eugene E. 1973 Slavery, Surplus, and Stratification on the Northwest Coast: The Ethnoenergetics of an Incipient Stratification System. Current Anthropology 14:603–631.Google Scholar
Sassaman, Kenneth E. 2004 Complex Hunter-Gatherers in Evolution and History: A North American Perspective. Journal of Archaeological Research 12:227–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saxe, Arthur A. 1970 Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practice. Unpublished PhD thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Shine, Irene 1976 Analysis of Ground Slate Beads from Glenrose. In The Glenrose Cannery Site, edited by R.G. Matson, pp. 259–266. National Museums of Canada, Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada, Paper No. 52, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Stewart, Hilary 1973 Artifacts of the Northwest Coast Indians . Hancock House Publishers, Vancouver.Google Scholar
Stuiver, Minze, and Reimer, Paula J. 1993 Extended 14C Database and Revised CALIB Radiocarbon Calibration Program. Radiocarbon 35:215–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suttles, Wayne 1958 Private Knowledge, Morality, and Social Classes among the Coast Salish. American Anthropologist 60:497–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suttles, Wayne 1960 Affinal Ties, Subsistence and Prestige among the Coast Salish. American Anthropologist 62:296–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suttles, Wayne 1968 Coping with Abundance: Subsistence on the Northwest Coast. In Man the Hunter, edited by Richard B. Lee and Irven DeVore, pp. 56–68. Aldine, Chicago.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suttles, Wayne 1987 Coast Salish Essays. University of Washington Press, Seattle.Google Scholar
Thom, Brian 2008 Chapter Five: Artifact Descriptions. In The Crescent Beach Site and the Place of the Locarno Beach Phase, edited by R. G. Matson. Report on file, Laboratory of Archaeology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Copies available from British Columbia Archaeology Branch, Victoria.Google Scholar
Trubitt, Mary Beth D. 2003 The Production and Exchange of Marine Shell Prestige Goods. Journal of Archaeological Research 11:243–277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkerson, Emily 2010 Delineation of Site Chronology and Spatial Components Using Macroscopic Lithic Analysis at DhRp-52. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.Google Scholar
Wilkerson, Emily, and Baran, Anna 2013 Challenging Past Assumptions Regarding Beads in the Salish Sea: Preliminary Bead Assemblage Analysis at DhRp-52. Poster presented at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Honolulu.Google Scholar
Williams, Gretchen 2011 The Osteology of Individual 2 from the Bible Camp Site, DjRw-14, Sechelt, British Columbia. Submitted to Archaeology and History Division, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau. Available from Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau.Google Scholar
Wilson, Peter J. 1988 The Domestication of the Human Species. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Yerkes, Richard W. 1993 Methods of Manufacturing Shell Beads at Prehistoric Mississippian Sites in Southeastern North America. In Traceologie et Fonction: he Gest Retrouve, edited by R. Beyries, pp. 235–242. Centre de Recherches Archeologiques du CNRS, Etudes et Recherches Archeologiques de l’U-niversite de Liege, Liege, Belgium.Google Scholar