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Climate Change Ethnoarchaeology: The Development of a Model to Test for the Impacts of Rapid Climatic Changes on Subsistence Practices in the Archaeological Record
Guarino, Michael C.
Guarino, Michael C.
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Abstract
This research utilizes ethnoarchaeological research to begin developing a general model for assessing the impacts of climate change on subsistence systems in the archaeological record. I begin by examining how modern climate change is experienced in the realm of subsistence strategies in the village of Stony River, Alaska, focusing on the aspects of climatic and ecological variability that indigenous villagers identify as important to their decision-making processes (Chapter II). Stony River residents identified numerous changes that have had subsistence impacts over the past 50-60 years, all of which can be grouped into four main categories: spatial uncertainty of resources, temporal uncertainty, resource abundance, and landscape access. I then develop a model utilizing traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), risk sensitivity theory, resilience, and evolutionary ecological models (particularly the diet-breadth model) that can derive testable hypotheses regarding adaptation strategies to the four main climate change impacts identified previously. Following model development, I test the model using published data from the La Riera site in Cantabrian Spain, specifically focusing on the Solutrean and Lower Magdalenian occupations represented by Levels 14-20. An evaluation of diet breadth, subsistence toolkit design, and foraging ranges at La Riera immediately following the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) suggests that hunters slightly restricted diet breadth to emphasize a highly reliable species (red deer) with increasingly maintainable and reliable composite weaponry in response to increased subsistence risk associated with rapid, unpredictable changes in climatic and ecological conditions. Although limitations in the La Riera dataset require the conclusions of the analysis to be viewed with some caution, the test illustrates that the model functions as an analytical tool. Further development is required to maximize the model’s effectiveness, however, both in the areas of model development and testing mechanics. The dissertation concludes by examining these areas of improvement that include, but are not limited to, increasing the temporal resolution of archaeological and paleoclimatic data, developing robust methods for testing toolkit reliability and maintainability, and most importantly, further incorporating indigenous perspectives and ways-of-knowing into the modeling process.
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2022-08-31
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University of Kansas
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Archaeology, Archaeology, Climate Change, Ethnoarchaeology, Subsistence