Transportation Innovation and Social Complexity among Maritime Hunter-Gatherer Societies

Advanced watercraft were in use at historic contact among a number of the most complex hunting-gathering societies of western North America, including the Chumash and the Nootkans. Though anthropologists often relegate technological innovations to very minor roles as stimuli toward social evolution...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American anthropologist 1995-12, Vol.97 (4), p.733-747
Main Author: Arnold, Jeanne E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology
Boats
Canoes
Chumash
Coasts
Complexity
Economic systems
Ethnology
Hunter gatherers
Ideology
Marine resources
Maritime industry
Morphological source materials
Native North Americans
Nootka
North America
Paleoanthropology
Politics
Social change
Social evolution
Social structure
Technological change
Technological innovation
Technology
Transport
Transport, communications, navigation
Transportation
Watercraft
Waterways
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Description
Summary:Advanced watercraft were in use at historic contact among a number of the most complex hunting-gathering societies of western North America, including the Chumash and the Nootkans. Though anthropologists often relegate technological innovations to very minor roles as stimuli toward social evolution and power inequities, archaeological analyses of long-term cultural change cannot afford to ignore the many social, symbolic, and practical implications of major innovations in transportation. Analysis of the linkages between watercraft and political, ideological, and economic systems reveals a strong association between social complexity and transportation of high capacity and range among maritime peoples.
ISSN:0002-7294
1548-1433
DOI:10.1525/aa.1995.97.4.02a00150