Papers by Catherine Cameron
Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2021
Graduate schools provide students opportunities for fieldwork and training in archaeological meth... more Graduate schools provide students opportunities for fieldwork and training in archaeological methods and theory, but they often overlook instruction in field safety and well-being. We suggest that more explicit guidance on how to conduct safe fieldwork will improve the overall success of student-led projects and prepare students to direct safe and successful fieldwork programs as professionals. In this article, we draw on the experiences of current and recent graduate students as well as professors who have overseen graduate fieldwork to outline key considerations in improving field safety and well-being and to offer recommendations for specific training and safety protocols. In devising these considerations and recommendations, we have referenced both domestic and international field projects, as well as those involving community collaboration.
All archaeological sites have been abandoned, but people abandoned sites in many different ways, ... more All archaeological sites have been abandoned, but people abandoned sites in many different ways, and for different reasons. What they did when leaving a settlement, structure, or activity area had a direct effect on the kind and quality of the cultural remains entering the archaeological record - for example, whether tools were removed, destroyed, or buried in the ground, and building structures dismantled or left standing. This book examines abandonment as a stage in the formation of an archaeological site, and relies on ethnoarchaelogical and archaeological data from many areas of the world - North and South America, Europe, Africa, and the Near East. It documents the many complex factors surrounding abandonment both across entire regions and within settlement areas, and makes an important theoretical and methodological contribution to this area of archaeological investigation.
Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, 2014
Jaffa and the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project, Fig. 1 Aerial photograph of the Jaffa's old city i... more Jaffa and the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project, Fig. 1 Aerial photograph of the Jaffa's old city illustrating the effects of Operation Anchor, 1936. Note that the shape of the destroyed area on the mound resembles an anchor J 4150 Jaffa and the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project Key Issues/Current Debates/Future Directions/Examples Jaffa and the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project 4151 J J Jaffa and the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project, Fig. 2 The JCHP's organizational framework J 4152 Jaffa and the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project zone around tell; Zone 3, area of lower city during Ottoman towns that falls outside Zones 1 and 2 Jaffa and the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project 4153
Journal of Field Archaeology, 1998
New techniques of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) acquisition and computer processing were tested ... more New techniques of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) acquisition and computer processing were tested at archaeological sites in the American Southwest and found to be highly effective in producing images of buried archaeological features. These new methods, especially amplitude slice-maps, were combined with more standard data processing and interpretation techniques and tested at sites with little or no surface expression. In southern Arizona, numerous pit structures buried in terrace alluvium were discovered and mapped. In the Four Corners region, a Chaco period great kiva and other pit structures and features were mapped by GPR and later confirmed through excavation. At some sites, GPR surveys did not successfully identify buried archaeological features. These failed surveys highlight both geological and methodological problems including soil conditions, surface disturbance, and equipment calibration that may be avoided or ameliorated in future GPR surveys.
Journal of Field Archaeology, 2007
... The mounds are separated by a narrow corridor, and John Stein and Stephen Lekson (1992: 94-95... more ... The mounds are separated by a narrow corridor, and John Stein and Stephen Lekson (1992: 94-95) argue that the corridor and the space be-tween the great house and the n10unds functioned as av ... 342 Earthen Architecture at theBluff Great House.,Utah/Cameron and Geib ...
American Antiquity, 1998
focus on agricultural crops. His reconsideration of wildresource productivity should give pause t... more focus on agricultural crops. His reconsideration of wildresource productivity should give pause to those using "corn-centric" models. At the same time, however, dependence on agricultural production certainly varied across the Southwest. The reduced agricultural dependence he argues for in the pinyon-juniper woodlands of northeastern Arizona may be less applicable to areas such as the northern Rio Grande region where there is ample evidence of a higher dependence on agriculture and more labor-intensive prehistoric agricultural practices. Cordell's summary chapter provides a valuable overview and critique of the volume and, as such, is difficult to summarize. Among her critiques of the volume with which I agree are that many authors did not adequately define "stress," compromising our ability to compare their manifestations of stress to others in the archaeological literature. This is particularly important since a range of stresses are implicated at very different geographic and temporal scales throughout the volume. Given that our colleagues will soon be applying the sophisticated models presented in the volume, more explicit definitions of stress conditions are necessary. Additionally, readers searching for explicit linkages between complexity theory, cultural evolution, and risk will find little of the first two topics (except in Tainter's introduction) due to the volume's focus on cultural strategies utilized to offset risk in the prehistoric Southwest. Despite the overstated title of the volume, however, this collection of models and data discussions stands as one of the most useful and thought-provoking treatments of multiscalar prehistoric social interaction to come out in a great while. The Santa Fe Institute deserves high praise for upping the explanatory ante in southwestern archaeology with this volume.
Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, 2014
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2019
Recent studies of household inequality based on the distribution of floor area indicate that the ... more Recent studies of household inequality based on the distribution of floor area indicate that the distribution of wealth varied significantly across time and space in the prehispanic upland US Southwest. In this study, we first examine inequality among households from Orayvi ca. 1901 to contextualize the patterns of inequality we then report among ancestral Pueblo households in the Basketmaker II-Pueblo III periods from the central Mesa Verde region, middle San Juan region, Chaco Canyon, and the Chuska Valley. At Orayvi just prior to the 1906 split, inequality was relatively low, in line with values typical for horticultural societies. Most inequality at Orayvi was among households rather than among clans and phratries, though clans were more wealth-differentiated than were phratries, factions, or other groups we examined. Degree of ancestral Pueblo wealth inequality varied considerably through time, with levels exceeding those calculated for Orayvi primarily during the Pueblo II period. Wealth disparities exceeding those at Orayvi arose in the Chuska Valley and Middle San Juan regions prior to the marked increase we document at Chaco, suggesting that populations from these areas may have been involved in the development of early great house construction at Chaco Canyon.
Detachment from Place: Beyond an Archaeology of Settlement Abandonment, 2020
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology , 2019
Recent studies of household inequality based on the distribution of floor area indicate that the ... more Recent studies of household inequality based on the distribution of floor area indicate that the distribution of wealth varied significantly across time and space in the prehispanic upland US Southwest. In this study, we first examine inequality among households from Orayvi ca. 1901 to contextualize the patterns of inequality we then report among ancestral Pueblo households in the Basketmaker II-Pueblo III periods from the central Mesa Verde region, middle San Juan region, Chaco Canyon, and the Chuska Valley. At Orayvi just prior to the 1906 split, inequality was relatively low, in line with values typical for horticultural societies. Most inequality at Orayvi was among households rather than among clans and phratries, though clans were more wealth-differentiated than were phratries, factions, or other groups we examined. Degree of ancestral Pueblo wealth inequality varied considerably through time, with levels exceeding those calculated for Orayvi primarily during the Pueblo II
period. Wealth disparities exceeding those at Orayvi arose in the Chuska Valley and Middle San Juan regions prior to the marked increase we document at Chaco, suggesting that populations from these areas may have been involved in the development of early great house construction at Chaco Canyon.
American Anthropologist Vol 115 (2), 2013
Archaeologists have made great strides in understanding prehistoric migration, yet they have tend... more Archaeologists have made great strides in understanding prehistoric migration, yet they have tended to focus on only part of the continuum of human movement. In nonstate societies, individuals and groups moved frequently across social and environmental boundaries for a range of reasons. Although archaeologists are well aware of the fluid nature of social boundaries, we are only beginning to use this knowledge to understand human movement. I use ethnohistoric and ethnographic examples to show that people in nonstate societies moved frequently as a result of warfare and captive taking, processes of fission and fusion, and random demographic events typical of small-scale societies. Such movement was often hurried, sometimes coerced, and decision making could be constrained by social factors beyond migrants' control. Illustrated with a case study from the American Southwest, I argue here that consideration of such forms of movement can significantly improve our interpretations of the past. [population movement, archaeology, ethnohistory, nonstate societies, American Southwest] RESUMEN Arqueólogos han hecho grandes avances en el entendimiento de la migración prehistórica, sin embargo han tendido a concentrarse solo en parte del continuum del movimiento humano. En sociedades sin estados, los individuos y grupos se movieron frecuentemente a través de fronteras sociales y ambientales por una variedad de razones. Aunque arqueólogos son bien conscientes de la naturaleza de las fronteras sociales, estamos solo empezando a usar este conocimiento para entender el movimiento humano. Utilizo ejemplos etnohistóricos y etnográficos para mostrar que las personas en sociedades sin estado se mueven frecuentemente como resultado de guerras y toma de prisioneros, procesos de fisión y fusión y eventos demográficos al azar típicos de sociedades a pequeña escala. Tal movimiento fue a menudo apresurado, algunas veces coaccionado y la toma de decisiones pudo ser constreñida por factores sociales mas allá del control de los migrantes. Ilustrado con un estudio de caso del Suroeste Americano, argumento aquí que la consideración de tales formas de movimiento puede significativamente mejorar nuestras interpretaciones del pasado. [movimiento de poblaciones, arqueología, etnohistoria, sociedades sin estado, Suroeste Americano] I n a little over two decades, the study of migration in U.S. archaeology has gone from a discredited remnant of culture history to a major research theme. We have made significant progress in understanding migration as a process, a goal set for us in 1990 by David Anthony. Although studies of migration have been productive, scholars have tended to focus on only a portion of the range of human movements
Current Anthropology Vol 52(2), 2011
Captives were found in societies of all social levels throughout much of history and prehistory. ... more Captives were found in societies of all social levels throughout much of history and prehistory. They were frequently women, and they could be potent agents of culture change. In some societies they entered a highly stigmatized slave class, while in others they might be fully incorporated into the society of their captors. Regardless of their social position, captives played an important role in the transmission of cultural practices and ultimately in culture change, but few studies have explored the role of captives in culture change, especially in nonstate societies. I begin that process, using ethnohistoric, historic, ethnographic, archaeological, and other data. I document the prevalence and antiquity of captive-taking around the world, its gender selectivity, and the rights of social personhood that captives were accorded in captor societies and assess factors that affected captives' ability to effect culture change. The focus is especially on craft activities, because captive influence is likely to be most evident to archaeologists in the production of craft goods. The wives and children of those whom they had defeated were frequently made slaves. (Ellis 1828:147) The Huron took prisoners in war.. .. They seldom put to death women and children, but kept some for themselves or made presents of them to those who had previously lost some of their own in war. (Tooker 1991 [1964]:31) The major motives for warfare [among contact-period people of the Llanos of South American] seemed to be to capture women and children and loot villages and gardens. (Morey 1975:282) On their return [from war], they handed any prisoners over to the relatives of their victims: Women and children for enslavement, men for torture and death. (Galloway and Jackson 2004:607) Intercultural interaction encompasses a large segment of archaeological research, including trade and exchange, culture contact, and migration. Archaeological approaches to inter-cultural interaction have been criticized for their unidirec-tional and macroscale focus (Cusick 1998b; Stein 2002), and we have recently seen calls for a reassessment of how inter-cultural interaction produces culture change (Kristiansen and Larsson 2005). In this paper, I consider a single type of in-tercultural interaction that was common throughout prehis-Catherine M. Cameron is Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado (233 UCB, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0233, U.S.A. [[email protected]]). This paper was
Conference Presentations by Catherine Cameron
Brown "State of the Field" ancient DNA Conference, 2019
In this poster, we explore the potential of biomolecular techniques (ancient DNA [aDNA] and isoto... more In this poster, we explore the potential of biomolecular techniques (ancient DNA [aDNA] and isotope analysis) to reveal the social processes behind the movement of people in the past. Drawing on Cameron’s extensive examination of ethnohistoric data on captivity, we realized that biomolecular data could allow us to access the occurrence of this practice in the past, and that it is likely an important factor in the migrations and population transformations recently identified through biomolecular techniques. We therefore introduce captive-taking, particularly the coerced integration of non-local women into a captor’s society through raiding, warfare, or “marriage,” as a possible explanation for some of the patterns
emerging from biomolecular studies. The goal of this study is to provide a model that we believe will be useful for interpreting at least some of the trends identified in new biomolecular data.
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Papers by Catherine Cameron
period. Wealth disparities exceeding those at Orayvi arose in the Chuska Valley and Middle San Juan regions prior to the marked increase we document at Chaco, suggesting that populations from these areas may have been involved in the development of early great house construction at Chaco Canyon.
Conference Presentations by Catherine Cameron
emerging from biomolecular studies. The goal of this study is to provide a model that we believe will be useful for interpreting at least some of the trends identified in new biomolecular data.
period. Wealth disparities exceeding those at Orayvi arose in the Chuska Valley and Middle San Juan regions prior to the marked increase we document at Chaco, suggesting that populations from these areas may have been involved in the development of early great house construction at Chaco Canyon.
emerging from biomolecular studies. The goal of this study is to provide a model that we believe will be useful for interpreting at least some of the trends identified in new biomolecular data.