Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Social Zooarchaeology of a Northwest Coast House

2011; Routledge; Volume: 6; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/15564894.2010.504806

1556-1828

Paul Ewonus,

Indigenous Studies and Ecology

ABSTRACT ABSTRACT Data from the Dionisio Point site on Galiano Island in the southern Strait of Georgia, Canada is used not only to document aspects of life at the site but also to consider how people made use of the coastal landscape. Central to this endeavor is the goal of tackling social questions, particularly those with implications for group interaction within the region. I examine the history of Dionisio Point using the results of recent zooarchaeological work and integrating our knowledge of social life at the site with seasonal land use patterns. I suggest that we can best explain the zooarchaeological results from House 2 by interpreting Dionisio Point as an aggregate village not dissimilar to known ethnographic aggregate villages in the Strait of Georgia. The implications of this analysis are that we can begin to see the constitution of social relationships and group identities in zooarchaeological and material culture evidence. The richness of the fauna identified from Dionisio Point together with a broad range of habitats that people residing at the site utilized during subsistence activities permits a reconstruction of the kinds of social engagement associated with these quotidian practices and their articulation with ceremonial life. Keywords: social archaeologyzooarchaeologyPacific Northwest Coastlandscape archaeologyDionisio Point site ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge Dr. Colin Grier, the Penelakut Tribe, and Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group for permission to study the animal bones from House 2 at Dionisio Point and for continuing support of this research. Dr. Dongya Yang undertook DNA analysis of the whalebone fragment from Dionisio Point at the Simon Fraser University Ancient DNA Laboratory. Rebecca Wigen very kindly allowed access to the University of Victoria Zooarchaeology Laboratory skeletal comparative collection. Aubrey Cannon, John Robb, and Jodi Lynn Barta provided insightful comments on earlier drafts and Colin Grier has been instrumental in the facilitation of my zooarchaeological work at Dionisio Point. The suggestions of three anonymous reviewers significantly improved this paper and I am grateful for their comments. The interpretations and conclusions I have made, however, are my own. Preparation of this paper was supported in part by a McMaster University Department of Anthropology Graduate Scholarship, a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) CGS Master's Scholarship, a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, a Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Tidmarsh Studentship, and a Cambridge University Overseas Research Studentship. Notes 1. Five 2 × 2 m excavation units were selected for analysis from the western side of House 2, of which one includes Layer A animal bone. Two of the four excavated large hearth features in the house may be found within these units. Three units were selected from the large central hearth feature area of the house, one of which is 1 × 2 m in plan. This unit was sampled for Layer A fauna. The majority of the central hearth feature is included in the deposits sampled for study here. Not only is this hearth feature the largest excavated from within House 2 but it also displays a relative paucity of preserved animal bone. An additional 2 × 2 m unit situated at the north side of the central house area was included. Grier (2001) Grier, C. 2001. The Social Economy of a Prehistoric Northwest Coast Plankhouse, Tempe: Arizona State University. Ph.D. Dissertation [Google Scholar] has suggested that this may have been the location of the house entrance. Towards the eastern end of the north side of the house a large bench feature was uncovered, running along the northern house wall for close to half its length, and a single 2 × 2 m unit near the center of this feature has been included here. From the eastern end itself three of a total of four excavated units have been included. All animal bone from these units, including Layer A, has been quantified and included. The fourth and final excavated large hearth was found in the middle of these eastern units. It is possible that a fifth unexcavated hearth may exist to the south of these units (Grier, 2001 Grier, C. 2001. The Social Economy of a Prehistoric Northwest Coast Plankhouse, Tempe: Arizona State University. Ph.D. Dissertation [Google Scholar]). All Layer B and C animal bone from each of the 13 sampled units is included in the analysis. 2. Vertebral fragments of most fish species present at Dionisio Point are typically not identifiable when less than 1/4 of the centrum remains intact. Therefore this was selected as the point in the process of bone fragmentation, or diagenesis, where adjustment should be made. Salmon vertebrae representing less than 1/4 of the centrum were accordingly quantified independently for NISP adjustment. Salmon vertebral fragments are identifiable at extremely small sizes both with the naked eye or the aid of a binocular microscope. 3. It is possible that preserved salmon may have been brought to the site with vertebrae removed at a processing location prior to preservation. Were this the case and a significantly greater amount of salmon was consumed at Dionisio Point, I suggest this would nevertheless be reflected more so by the faunal data. There are several documented sites in the coastal Gulf of Georgia region that do include much larger proportions of salmon amongst their fish bone assemblages (e.g., Arcas 1994a Arcas Consulting Archaeologists Ltd. 1994a. Archaeological investigations at Tsawwassen, B.C.: Volume II, Archaeology, Victoria: Unpublished permit report (1989–41 & 1990–2) submitted to the British Columbia Archaeology Branch. [Google Scholar]; Boucher 1976 Boucher, N. D. 1976. Prehistoric Subsistence at the Helen Point Site, Burnaby, BC: Simon Fraser University. M.A. Thesis [Google Scholar]; Hanson 1991 Hanson, D. 1991. Late Prehistoric Subsistence in the Strait of Georgia Region of the Northwest Coast, Burnaby, BC: Simon Fraser University. Ph.D. Dissertation [Google Scholar]; Mathews and Dady 2004 Mathews, D. and Dady, P. 2004. Excavation and monitoring at DcRu-74: Colwood Trunk Sewer Phase V, South Esquimalt Lagoon, Victoria: Unpublished permit report (2002–398) submitted to the British Columbia Archaeology Branch. [Google Scholar]; Mitchell 1981 Mitchell, D. H. 1981. DcRu-78: A prehistoric occupation of Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Park. Syesis, 14: 131–150. [Google Scholar]; Wigen 1980 Wigen, R. J. 1980. A Faunal Analysis of Two Middens on the East Coast of Vancouver Island, Victoria: University of Victoria. M.A. Thesis [Google Scholar]; Wilson 1992 Wilson, I. R. 1992. Excavations at DfRu 74, Cable Bay, Galiano Island, Victoria: Unpublished permit report (1991–76) submitted to the British Columbia Archaeology Branch. [Google Scholar]). Not all of these are likely to have been places where salmon were processed initially for preservation.