Jacob L Fisher
I use a combination of human behavioral ecology and zooarchaeology to understand past human-environment interactions and the decision-making processes that occurs during foraging and subsequent sharing and cooking. I use this approach in a number of regions in western US, including Great Basin, California, Southwest, and the Northwest.
My dissertation, as it was originally conceived, attempts to identify costly signaling forms of hunting using spatial distribution of faunal combined with stable isotopes to determine the relative costs of game acquisition. Ultimately, while much of the costly signaling model could not be addressed, the faunal and isotope data provided important information regarding animal responses to climate change at the local level. I also found that the relative taxonomic abundances between structures is largely determined by the relative degree of destruction across taxa and not real behavioral differences in terms of hunting and sharing.
Much of my research continues to focus on bighorn sheep hunting with a focus on high elevation adaptations. I have been working on the faunas from alpine sites located in the White Mountains, California to evaluate changes in butchering and transportation that may correspond with shifting settlement-subsistence strategies.
I am interested in identifying how small mammals are prepared for consumption. I have also been working on predicting and identifying culinary processing at Antelope Cave, a Virgin Anasazi site in northwestern Arizona. The fauna is dominated by jackrabbits, and various data are used to show that these were processed very intensively that may relate to overall resource stress based on predictions formed using the marginal value theorem. Alternatively, heavy processing may relate to feasting associated with communal jackrabbit drives.
I am currently working with a number of students on a comprehensive analysis of the assemblage from Kathy's Rockshelter, located near Paradise in Butte County, California. Faunal data from the site show rather typical trends of resource intensification until the protohistoric period, when a dramatic rebound of large game and reduction in the use of geophytes are observed. We are working on distinguishing whether this change is due to demographic collapse of Native Californians in the interior due to epidemics spread by the earliest European explorers, climate change associated with the Little Ice Age, or other factors.
As the NAGPRA Director at Sacramento State University, most of my time is spent working on repatriation efforts and bringing our extensive archaeological collections up to speed with modern curation standards.
Supervisors: Donald K. Grayson (Chair), J. Ben Fitzhugh, Peter Lape, and Eric A. Smith
Phone: (916) 278-4555
Address: Department of Anthropology
CSU Sacramento
6000 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95819-6106
My dissertation, as it was originally conceived, attempts to identify costly signaling forms of hunting using spatial distribution of faunal combined with stable isotopes to determine the relative costs of game acquisition. Ultimately, while much of the costly signaling model could not be addressed, the faunal and isotope data provided important information regarding animal responses to climate change at the local level. I also found that the relative taxonomic abundances between structures is largely determined by the relative degree of destruction across taxa and not real behavioral differences in terms of hunting and sharing.
Much of my research continues to focus on bighorn sheep hunting with a focus on high elevation adaptations. I have been working on the faunas from alpine sites located in the White Mountains, California to evaluate changes in butchering and transportation that may correspond with shifting settlement-subsistence strategies.
I am interested in identifying how small mammals are prepared for consumption. I have also been working on predicting and identifying culinary processing at Antelope Cave, a Virgin Anasazi site in northwestern Arizona. The fauna is dominated by jackrabbits, and various data are used to show that these were processed very intensively that may relate to overall resource stress based on predictions formed using the marginal value theorem. Alternatively, heavy processing may relate to feasting associated with communal jackrabbit drives.
I am currently working with a number of students on a comprehensive analysis of the assemblage from Kathy's Rockshelter, located near Paradise in Butte County, California. Faunal data from the site show rather typical trends of resource intensification until the protohistoric period, when a dramatic rebound of large game and reduction in the use of geophytes are observed. We are working on distinguishing whether this change is due to demographic collapse of Native Californians in the interior due to epidemics spread by the earliest European explorers, climate change associated with the Little Ice Age, or other factors.
As the NAGPRA Director at Sacramento State University, most of my time is spent working on repatriation efforts and bringing our extensive archaeological collections up to speed with modern curation standards.
Supervisors: Donald K. Grayson (Chair), J. Ben Fitzhugh, Peter Lape, and Eric A. Smith
Phone: (916) 278-4555
Address: Department of Anthropology
CSU Sacramento
6000 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95819-6106
less
Related Authors
InterestsView All (44)
Uploads
Papers by Jacob L Fisher
Antiquity for over a decade. Empirical support for the original argument for costly signaling hunting by Hildebrandt and
McGuire partly derived from a regional synthesis of faunal data from southeastern California that demonstrated a spike in
artiodactyl hunting during the Middle Archaic. This spike is primarily driven by the faunal assemblage from a single, high-elevation site located in the White Mountains of southeastern California. It was suspected that this anomaly was a reflection
of analytical differences in taxonomic identifications among faunal analysts. Contrary to expectations, it was discovered
that taxonomic identifications were conservative. Instead, the previously reported number of identified specimens for artiodactyls was calculated in a manner inconsistent with other analyses in the region. When corrected, the regional data show
a pattern of faunal exploitation that is consistent with expectations derived from optimal foraging theory.
Conference Presentations by Jacob L Fisher
Antiquity for over a decade. Empirical support for the original argument for costly signaling hunting by Hildebrandt and
McGuire partly derived from a regional synthesis of faunal data from southeastern California that demonstrated a spike in
artiodactyl hunting during the Middle Archaic. This spike is primarily driven by the faunal assemblage from a single, high-elevation site located in the White Mountains of southeastern California. It was suspected that this anomaly was a reflection
of analytical differences in taxonomic identifications among faunal analysts. Contrary to expectations, it was discovered
that taxonomic identifications were conservative. Instead, the previously reported number of identified specimens for artiodactyls was calculated in a manner inconsistent with other analyses in the region. When corrected, the regional data show
a pattern of faunal exploitation that is consistent with expectations derived from optimal foraging theory.
To my surprise, the copy of Bordes' "The Old Stone Age" was signed "To Sal and Lew in statistical agreement" by Bordes. My understanding is that Professor Eck was friends with Sally Binford when they were in Chicago.
This is, of course, an artifact of one of the most important debates in modern archaeology, one that is still included in introductory textbooks over forty years later.
I don't feel like this belongs on my bookshelf, so I'm trying to share it with others.