Based on the author's Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references.

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This study presents a population history of the Huron-Petun, Iroquoian-speaking agriculturalists who occupied south-central Ontario from A.D. 900 to A.D. 1650. Temporal change in the number, size, and residential density of prehistoric and contact village sites of the Huron-Petun are used to delineate population change. It is revealed that Huron-Petun population grew dramatically during the fourteenth century, attaining a maximum size of approximately 30,000 in the middle of the fifteenth century. This growth appears to have been intrinsic (1.2% per annum) and is best explained by colonization of new lands and increased production and consumption of corn. Population stabilized during the fifteenth century primarily because of an increased burden of density-dependent diseases (tuberculosis) arising from life in large nucleated villages. Huron-Petun population remained at 30,000 until A.D. 1634; there is no archaeological evidence for protohistoric epidemics of European origin. The historic depopulation of the Huron-Petun country, resulting from catastrophic first encounters with European diseases between 1634 and 1640, is substantiated by archaeological data.

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This study is an analytical examination of a stylistic anomaly observed among Middleport Iroquoian village sites (dating c. A.D. 1300-1450) located near Crawford Lake in southcentral Ontario, Canada. The anomaly is characterized by differing percentages of two forms of ceramic smoking pipes from closely spaced, contemporaneous village sites. This distinction occurs throughout southern Ontario, but is particularly pronounced in the Crawford Lake area. In order to develop and test a model to explain this anomaly, an approach employing a hierarchy of inference, including formal, spatial, temporal, economic, social, and cultural levels, is proposed. This is applied to an analysis of pottery and smoking pipes from eight Middleport sites. The key elements of the explanation are: (1) the two styles represent two distinct prehistoric communities; (2) these communities competed with each other for limited resources; and (3) they symbolized this competition through differences in pipe styles. This conclusion indicates that both the material culture and social relations among Middleport communities may be more complex than has previously been inferred.

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