essay

Prehistoric relationships between the Plains, Boreal Forest and Cordillian regions

problems in the prehistory of the north american subarctic : the athapaskan questionCalgaryPublished In 1977 • Pages: 83-89

By: Donahue, Paul F..

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Donahue presents the argument that artifacts that are commonly refered to as 'ethnoliguistic markers' (i.e. archaeological assemblages or diagnostic artifacts that are thought of as Athapaskan, Salishan, or Algonkian) can better be assigned to different physiographic or environmental zones. To support this argument, Donahue discusses characteristic artifacts of the northern Plains, the Boreal forest, and the Cordilleran. He points out some fallicies of lexicostatistics and some assumptions that archaeologists commonly make in assigning archaeological assemblages to the ancestors of a modern group, and other simplistic assumptions. He stresses more stringent criteria be used which will support arguments proposing cultural continuity.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Reviews and critiques
Location
External migration
Lithic industries
Weapons
Chronologies and culture sequences
traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Proto-Athapaskans
RegionThe area the document pertains to
North America
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Arctic and Subarctic
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
essay
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Archaeologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
4: Excellent Secondary Data
NotesAdditional notes
Paul F. Donahue
For bibliographical references see 39: References cited
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
80494866
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Athapaskan Indians--Antiquities