Binford & Hunter-gatherers

BInford 1980

• Understanding can only come from direct exposure
• "Diagnostic approach" to ethnography
• "Foragers" - consumers to goods, frequent residential moves
• "Collectors" - goods to consumers, fewer residential moves 
• Effective temperature - relevant to site formation/food production

Site Pattern

• Must have tolerable effective temperature (ET) for economic model
• Nomadic mobility correlates with food production
• Food production correlates with effective temperature
• Seasonal temperature variability requires increases in mobility
• Seasonal impact on production influences model type

Effective Temperature

• Scale or index that accounts for:
• Temperature of air - heat
• Moisture levels of the air - humidity
• Movement of the air - wind 
• Direct impact on food production capabilities

Hunter-Gatherer food storage

• Food preservation required labor specialization
• Also requires surplus food and sedentary lifestyle
• Modern methods - cooling, heating, drying, chemical
• They lacked the specialized tools and expertise
• Rather than rely on stockpiling, they moved to a new source

Sources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter-gatherer
• http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/magazine/carnivore.html?pagewanted=all
• http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/effective+temperature
• http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/279653?uid=3739928&uid=2129&uid=2&uid...
• http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Hunter-gatherer

Pictures

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Indig1.jpg
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Shoshoni_tipis.jpg
• http://bernardperroud.com/wp-content/uploads/gobekli-huts-leather.jpg
• http://d1jrw5jterzxwu.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/default/files/uplo...
• Title page is Haiku Deck stock picture of "hunter-gatherers"