Households are fundamental units of society that possess powerful explanatory potential; however, few studies have approached household organization during the critical contact period within the Mid-Fraser Canyon. The 2012 excavation of Bridge Rivers Housepit 54 (HP 54) offers a rare opportunity to investigate such socioeconomic relationships and their spatial manifestations. Hypotheses structured with a household archaeology theoretical framework emphasize household socioeconomic strategies. The first hypothesis outlines a network strategy characterized by greater centralization of power, hierarchical complexity, and material-wealth that is reflected in residential units with individual features and disparate accumulations of prestige goods and high utility resources. Such floor plans have been ethnographically observed among the Thompson and Lower Lillooet. The second hypothesis proposes a corporate household strategy that lacks the centralization of power seen within the household in the network strategy. Such a strategy could be reflected by two spatial arrangements: 1) a collectivist approach with multiple residential units that lack significant wealth-based differences and 2) a communalist approach with a central hearth and shared activity areas. Housepits divided by activity areas or rooms predicted by the communalist approach have been described in ethnographies of the Shuswap and the Upper Lillooet as well archaeological reports of the Keatley Creek site. To identify HP 54s floor plan, this analysis employs GIS mapping techniques to reveal different distributions and clusters of lithic, historic, and faunal data in relation to features. This thesis will examine the relationship between ethnographic and archaeological records as well as indigenous life during the Fur Trade Era, while also contributing to an enhanced understanding of household relationships.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MONTANA/oai:etd.lib.umt.edu:etd-05132013-111320 |
| Date | 23 May 2013 |
| Creators | Williams, Alexandra Christine |
| Contributors | Mr. Dave Dyer, Dr. Anna Marie Prentiss, Dr. John Douglas |
| Publisher | The University of Montana |
| Source Sets | University of Montana Missoula |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-05132013-111320/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Montana or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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