Islands on the Plains : ecological, social, and ritual use of landscapes / edited by Marcel Kornfeld and Alan J. Osborn.

Format:

Book

Conference/Event

Contributor:

Kornfeld, Marcel.

Osborn, Alan J.

Conference Name:

Plains Anthropological Conference (1996 : Iowa City, Iowa)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indians of North America--Great Plains--Antiquities--Congresses.

Indians of North America.

Human geography--Great Plains--Congresses.

Human geography.

Island ecology.

Antiquities.

Great Plains--Antiquities--Congresses.

Great Plains.

Island ecology--Great Plains--Congresses.

Genre:

Conference papers and proceedings.

Physical Description:

xiii, 331 pages : illustrations, maps ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Salt Lake City : University of Utah Press, [2003]

Summary:

A new view of human adaptation on the Great Plains SCATTERED THROUGHOUT the Great Plains are many isolated areas of varying size and ecology, quite distinct from the surrounding grasslands. Such spaces can be uplands like the Black Hills, low hills like the Nebraska Sand Hills, or linear areas such as shallow river valleys and deeply incised canyons. While the notion of "islands" is not a new one among ecologists, its application to Plains archaeology is. The contributors to this volume illustrate the different ways that the spatial, structural, and temporal nature of islands conditioned the behavior and adaptation of past Plains peoples. This is a first step toward a more detailed analysis of habitat variation and its effects on Plains cultural dynamics and evolution. Although the emphasis is on ecology, several chapters also address social and ideological islands in the form of sacred sites and special hunting grounds.

Contents:

1. Biogeographical Islands and Ecological Patches: Seeing the Great Plains from the Inside Out / Alan J. Osborn, Marcel Kornfeld 1

Part I. Playa Basins as Islands

2. The Playas of the Southern High Plains: An Archipelago of Human Occupation for 12,000 Years on the North American Grasslands / Luc Litwinionek, Eileen Johnson, Vance T. Holliday 21

3. Prehistoric Utilization of Patch Environments and Culture Change in Colorado's Central High Plains / Robert H. Brunswig 44

Part II. Linear Islands: Streams and Canyons

4. Catchment Basins as Islands in West-Central Oklahoma: Farra Canyon / William E. Banks 67

5. The Western Niobrara River: An Inter-Island Passage on the Plains / George H. MacDonell, LuAnn Wandsnider 89

Part III. Upland Islands

6. Pull of the Hills: Technological Structures Around Biogeographical Islands / Marcel Kornfeld 111

7. Investigations in the Bridger Mountain Range, Montana: A Backyard Archaeology Project / David A. Byers, Walter Allen, John W. Fisher, Jr. 142

8. Environmental and Cultural Variation in the Nebraska Sand Hills / Amy Koch, John R. Bozell 167

Part IV. Ecological Modeling and Resource Patches

9. "Places Where They Kill Deer": Moisture Islands, Winter Climate, and Ungulate Ecology in the Northwestern Great Plains / Alan J. Osborn 193

10. Islands of Geophytes: Sego Lily and Wild Onion Patch Density in a High Plains Habitat / LuAnn Wandsnider, Yi-Shing Chung 220

Part V. Sacred and Social Islands

11. Social Islands in the Denver Basin / Tammy Stone 245

12. Sacred Islands: An Exploration of Religion and Landscape in the Northern Great Plains / Linea Sundstrom 258

Part VI. Present and Future of Plains Islands Research

13. Islands and Patches in the Plains / Susan C. Vehik 301.

Notes:

"Most of the chapters in this book were first presented at the 1996 Plains Anthropological Conference in Iowa City, Iowa"--Acknowledgments.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0874807603

OCLC:

51931344