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Bibliography: pages 177-205. / This thesis presents a reinterpretation of the late-Holocene hunter-gatherer archaeology of the Eland's Bay and Lambert's Bay areas of the western Cape. Marked changes in settlement, and subsistence over the last 4500 years had been previously suggested as having resulted from external factors, such as the environment and contact with incoming pastoralist groups. In contrast, this thesis presents hunter-gatherers as active role players in the transformation of their society and history. This was proposed as a result of an excavation and dating programme, palaeoenvironmental reconstructions with better resolved time sequences, and the use of an interpretative framework that emphasises possible changes in population numbers and in modes of production, as well as the consequences of these processes. Between 3500 and 2000 BP, population densities increased and residence permanence became more sedentary, both of which were easily accommodated by a productive environment. Solutions to social stress, resulting from landscape infilling, were not sought through migration, but through the formalization of ritual gatherings at Steenbokfontein Cave. During these gregarious occasions, proper codes of conducts were reinforced, inter- and intra-group conflict was mediated and peoples' identity with the local landscape was also asserted. Coinciding with the increase in population numbers after 3500 BP, subsistence was reorganized around the intensive collection of highly predictable and productive species, such as shellfish, tortoises and plants. Frequent snaring of small and territorial bovids almost completely replaced the hunting of large mobile game. A system of delayed returns was also central to coastal hunter-gatherer economy between 3000 and 2000 BP, whereby the collection, processing and storage of large quantities of shellfish meat was undertaken. The large-scale effort of this activity is attested by the massive build up of large shell middens termed "megamiddens". It seems likely that hunter- gatherers at this time obtained most of the necessary protein from marine resources. In addition to the pervasive and high levels of social stress, ecological stress became palpable as environmental conditions began to deteriorate after 2400 BP. Ritual intensification no longer provided a solution, and aggregation phases at Steenbokfontein Cave came to an end. Social networks amongst hunter-gatherer groups broke down as a consequence of their fission into smaller social units and withdrawal of some of them to the periphery of the study area. The arrival of stock-owning groups around 2000 BP triggered a series of different responses by hunter-gatherers. These varied from cooperative behaviour, assimilation, avoidance and/or conflict. It is argued that these differences were shaped to a large extent by variable socio- economic configurations amongst pre-contact hunter-gatherer groups. The diet of the newly reconfigured and diverse hunter-gatherer society became overall more mixed after 2000 BP. Shellfish gathering became less important, some hunting of large game was practiced, with most of the diet provided by plant collection, snaring of small antelopes and the capture of tortoises.

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The chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes, Pongidae) among all other living species, is our closest relation, with whom we last shared a common ancestor less than five million years ago. These African apes make and use a rich and varied kit of tools. Of the primates, and even of the other Great Apes, they are the only consistent and habitual tool-users. Chimpanzees meet the criteria of working definitions of culture as originally devised for human beings in socio-cultural anthropology. They show sex differences in using tools to obtain and to process a variety of plant and animal foods. The technological gap between chimpanzees and human societies living by foraging (hunter-gatherers) is surprisingly narrow, at least for food-getting. Different communities of chimpanzees have different tool-kits, and not all of this regional and local variation can be explained by the varied physical and biotic environments in which they live. Some differences are likely customs based on non-functionally derived and symbolically encoded traditions. Chimpanzees serve as heuristic, referential models for the reconstruction of cultural evolution in apes and humans from an ancestral hominoid. However, chimpanzees are not humans, and key differences exist between them, though many of these apparent contrasts remain to be explored empirically and theoretically.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, August 2015. / Burials within the Western Cape provide a valuable opportunity to understand past social practices during the Later Stone Age. The aim of this dissertation is to specifically study Western Cape LSA burials in such a way as to understand the social and cognitive processes of hunter-gatherers in that region. In order to do this the burials will be approached and studied from a social and cultural perspective. This will include applying a theoretical approach which lends itself to materiality. Certain techniques will be employed to aid the study of this research question, such as a temporal, spatial and structural analysis of the Western Cape burials. Once the temporal analysis is done, certain sections within time can more closely be studied and analysed. The spatial analysis will examine the sites on a regional scale. The interpretative discussion will concentrate on specific patterns and structural aspects of the burials. The above may illuminate a possible array of questions to be asked surrounding the Western Cape burials. This in turn will help in aiding a discussion surrounding the cognitive and social processes of hunter-gatherers in the Western Cape.

Esta dissertação discute o contexto regional de ocupação das populações sambaquieiras do litoral sul do Estado de Santa Catarina em uma área lagunar de formação holocênica que, quando do máximo transgressivo do nível médio marinho, teria tomado a conformação de uma grande baía, com recortes microambientais variados e diversas formações insulares, denominada aqui como Paleolaguna de Santa Marta. Por meio de pesquisas bibliográficas, visitas de campo, levantamentos regionais extensivos, prospecções intensivas e intervenções arqueológicas, foi confeccionado um cadastro contendo informações de todos os sítios conhecidos na área (mais de 90 sambaquis, além de sítios relacionados aos grupos Guarani e Je do Sul), incluindo localização, implantação, estrutura estratigráfica, composição e estado de preservação, tendo-se também datado vários deles. Estes dados propiciaram uma análise de distribuição espacial e cronológica deste conjunto de sambaquis a partir de um enfoque regional, possibilitando inferências acerca do sistema de ocupação e territorialidade das populações pescadoras-caçadoras-coletoras que ali habitaram em um período compreendido entre 7000 e 1000 anos AP. / This dissertation discusses the settlement system of the sambaqui mounbuilders from the southern shores of Santa Catarina between 7000 and 1000 years BP, focusing in a regional level. The lagoonal study area has formerly been an open bay environment by the time of the transgressive maximum sea level, with a wider variety of micro-environmental settings and internal islands. By means of intensive field survey and systematic site intervening, a catalog of sites has been compiled with information on more than 90 sambaquis therein recorded so far (plus a number of later Guarani and southern Je sites), that includes site location and environmental setting, stratigraphy and composition, as well as their preservation conditions. A chronological framework has been established by dating several of these mounds, allowing the modeling of settlement evolution and territorial patterns of this long lasting, transitional, fisher-gatherer society.

Hearth features are often central to hunter-gatherer campsite organization and activities and have long been a focus of study for archaeologists. Among these studies, few have undertaken analysis of calcined faunal remains contained within these features. This thesis investigates human subsistence and occupation at the Richardson Island site, Haida Gwaii, B.C., through examination of the hearth-derived fauna. This is one of very few faunal assemblages from the early Holocene on the northern Northwest Coast and dates to between 9300 and 9100 BP. Description of the taxa in the assemblages is followed by discussion of human technological adaptations for procurement. Hearth replications and a controlled burning experiment demonstrate the complex taphonomic trajectory of burnt fish bone assemblages. Cluster analysis showed weak hearth groupings based largely on taxonomic richness. Chi-squared tests showed that some Kinggi Complex artifact types vary in frequency when in close proximity to hearths. Overall, hearths and surrounding deposits show maritime capacities in the early Holocene.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed June 13, 2007). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 338-387).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-198). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2006. / Bibliography: leaves 105-114. Also available online.