North Pacific and Bering Sea Maritime Societies: The Archaeology of Prehistoric and Early Historic Coastal Peoples || Contingency and Agency in the Growth of Northwest Coast Maritime

Contingency and Agency in the Growth of Northwest Coast Maritime EconomiesAuthor(s): Aubrey CannonSource: Arctic Anthropology, Vol. 35, No. 1, North Pacific and Bering Sea Maritime Societies:The Archaeology of Prehistoric and Early Historic Coastal Peoples (1998), pp. 57-67Published by: University of Wisconsin PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40316456 .

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CONTINGENCY AND AGENCY IN THE GROWTH OF NORTHWEST COAST

MARITIME ECONOMIES AUBREY CANNON

Opportunity Versus Necessity

Abstract Zooarchaeological data suggest that the inception and apparent intensification of Northwest Coast fishing economies were not the result of simple necessity arising from population growth and environmental depletion, or of enhanced opportunity based on resource productivity. Faunal evidence from the site of Namu, British Columbia, indicates that sedentary settlement, intensive salmon production, and shell midden formation were independent developments, not directly associated with increased salmon productivity or human population growth. Increased storage capacity, contingent on development of plank housing, and social feasting and competition are considered as alternative explanations for the intensification of salmon fishing. The possibility that increased shellfish collection might have been the result of reduction in the incidence of paralytic shellfish poisoning, enhanced storage capacity, and competition in collection activities is also considered. Discussion of research priorities for the investigation of maritime adaptations suggests a need to focus on local and regional environmental opportunities ahead of the global concerns of material necessity or the particular effects of human agency.

Development of a maritime fishing economy is a key element in Northwest Coast prehistory. We still lack a definitive account of its precise chronology and regional variability, but explanation of the inception and intensification of marine fishing has proved fertile ground for theoretical debate. Opposing views characterize fishing as a response to either economic necessity or environmental opportunity. The stress on opportunity and necessity is also mirrored in the characterization of coastal environments. Is the coast a veritable "Garden of Eden," affording such wealth of resources that intensive fishing, large sedentary set-

tlement, and dense population were almost in- evitable developments? Or, did the constraints of population growth, areal circumscription, and resource depletion simply force greater investment in fishing and its associated technology?

Yesner (1987) has clearly outlined the opposing positions in the "Garden of Eden" versus "second rate marine resources" debate and has shown that the debate obscures the variability in coastal environments and marine resource productivity. He

Aubrey Cannon, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4L9

ARCTIC ANTHROPOLOGY Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 57-67, 1998



58 Arctic Anthropology 35:1

suggests that a combination of environmental change, population growth, and technological development were responsible for the delayed worldwide adoption of marine diets. Perlman (1980) has also convincingly argued that coastal adaptations are not always the product of demographic stress. Local circumstantial variability would seem to preclude a more general explanation for the inception and development of maritime adaptations. If the use of coastal resources is a relatively late transition in most areas of the world, it may be because the coast is a poorer environmental option for peoples fully adapted to a mobile terrestrial hunting and gathering way of life. New technologies and strategies would be required to exploit marine resources, and the limited range and restricted location of resources in many coastal environments generally preclude the type of mobility often associated with terrestrial hunting and gathering. If coasts are incongruent with terrestrial hunting and gathering adaptations, it is not surprising that their exploitation in some regions tends to follow the full occupation of interior zones by mobile bands of terrestrial foragers.

New questions emerge once the initial shift toward the use of coastal environments has taken place. What choices and opportunities are available, and what particular constraints and cultural priorities govern the development of the maritime subsistence economy? Once people have made the adjustment to a coastal way of life we can expect local circumstances to play a much greater role in subsequent developments. Problems in Northwest Coast prehistory center on the timing and intensification of the initial maritime adaptation, specialized salmon fishing, and shellfish gathering. Un- fortunately, most debate has been concerned with whether to characterize these specific developments as the function of general opportunities or necessities.

Fladmark (1975) initially outlined a broad- based model of environmental change and enhanced resource productivity which enabled the transition to more intensive salmon fishing. Ac- cording to his model, this resulted in larger, more sedentary settlements which in turn necessitated greater use of marginal resources such as shellfish. The model was intended to account for the apparent coincidental development of large shell midden deposits at sites along the British Columbia coast at around 5000 BP, following the time of postglacial stabilization of land and sea levels. The opportunity afforded by the enhanced productivity of salmon is seen as the prime mover behind transitions in subsistence and settlement, with subsequent developments predicated on the population increase associated with increased food production and sedentary settlement.

In the years since Fladmark's formulation, an

increasing body of archaeological evidence has led many to question this model. Zooarchaeological analysis has indicated much later intensification of salmon fishing at specific site locations, and general evidence of technological change and apparent cultural elaboration has suggested gradual evolution of the maritime economy (Matson and Coupland 1995). In place of global environmental change and enhanced productivity, more recent explanations invoke random technological innovation and a combination of selection pressures including population growth, alternative resource depletion, and strategies of risk reduction.

For example, zooarchaeological data are the basis of an elaborate model of terrestrial resource depletion and consequent shift to increased salmon fishing, which is used to explain subsistence change at the Hoko River site (Fig. 1) and ad- jacent areas of the south coast of British Columbia (Croes and Hackenberger 1988). Intensification of salmon fishing on the southern coast is also seen as a consequence of demographic pressure and technological innovation, specifically the adoption of slate knives to enable large-scale processing of salmon for storage (Matson 1983). However, this latter interpretation is not supported by the evidence of salmon remains at the Glenrose Cannery site, which suggests a consistent focus on salmon over time. Recently recovered evidence of fish weirs at this site also indicates a capacity for large- scale harvest as early as 4590 BP (Eldridge and Acheson 1992). Sites in the Queen Charlotte Strait region of the central British Columbia coast are among the few that show clear zooarchaeological evidence for a relatively late increase in salmon fishing. However, the explanation given for this increase rests on assumptions of differences in cultural tradition and a late southerly migration of peoples with a fully developed maritime adaptation (Mitchell 1988). Although there is a lack of direct evidence indicating gradual evolution of maritime adaptations on the British Columbia coast, a consensus is emerging that this was a relatively late development brought about by the needs of expanding populations and declining opportunities for alternative resource exploitation (Croes 1992; Matson 1992).

Dissatisfaction with a global palaeoecological model of enhanced resource opportunity has grown as a result of contradictory empirical evidence and problems in explaining why resources are used simply because they become more available. A general pattern of increased salmon fishing and shell midden formation around 5000 years ago, as outlined in Fladmark's model, may yet be supported by the results of further investigation, but there will always be a need to consider local and shorter-term variations in salmon productivity in the context of any global pattern of environmen-



Cann on : North west Coast Maritime Econ omies 59

Figure 1. Map of the southern and central coasts of British Columbia and northern Washington state showing locations of sites mentioned in the text.

tal change. A more serious problem is the lack of explanation for increased production of marine resources.

Evolutionary models can explain change as a function of selection pressures developing out of a need for greater food production. However, they

fail to account for the perennial problem of why populations would grow to the point that they cre- ate subsistence need, and why that process is so variable between locations. They also have difficulty demonstrating that alternatives to marine resources are equally viable or energetically more



The Namu Fauna


efficient bases for subsistence. Evolutionary explanations also tend to deny individual human agency and choice, something that is at least im- plicit in models based on resource opportunity.

The problems that presently exist in efforts to explain the origin and development of maritime adaptations on the British Columbia coast include: (1) how to account for local exceptions in the context of general trends; (2) how to explain the choice to utilize available resources without in- voking determinist models of population pressure; and (3) how to obtain evidence that will resolve these issues. My views on these questions have been shaped largely by the analysis and interpretation of zooarchaeological evidence from the site of Namu, which is located in the traditional territory of the Heiltsuk Nation on the central coast of British Columbia. These data show a more particular historical pattern of marine resource utilization than recent opportunistic or evolutionary models would suggest.

The Namu faunal remains were recovered from ex- cavations conducted by Roy Carlson of Simon Fraser University in 1977 and 1978 (Carlson 1979). The faunal record at Namu, which is more or less continuous from ca. 6000 BP to the European contact period, exhibits clear trends in species abundance that are directly relevant to the problem of maritime adaptations on the Northwest Coast (Cannon 1991). The picture that emerges is one of long-term continuity in the overall pattern of site settlement and subsistence, coupled with major changes in the focus and intensity of the economy over time.

Continuity is evident in the range of resources exploited and the sedentary nature of site settlement. The full range of marine and anadro- mous fish, marine, forest, lake, and littoral zone mammals, and sea birds is found in the earliest fauna-bearing deposits and throughout subsequent occupation levels. The capacity and propensity to exploit all available classes of fauna is clearly evident from the earliest period for which reliable faunal data are available (6060-5240 BP), and is strongly indicated by isolated faunal remains found in association with even earlier deposits (ca. 7000 BP) (Cannon 1996a). The vertebrate faunal assemblage recovered in 1977 and 1978 is domi- nated by salmon, and this dominance remains consistent over time despite growth and decline in the relative intensity of the salmon fishery. Fine- sieving of matrix samples recovered in bucket- auger tests conducted in 1994 showed that herring was also intensively utilized from at least 6000 BP. The ratio of herring to whole salmon vertebrae in the auger samples was on the order of fifty to one,

and the intensity of the herring fishery appears to have been consistent through all periods of occupation. The preservation of faunal remains also coincides with the earliest direct evidence for the utilization of shellfish. Small amounts of scattered shell and isolated lenses of mussel shell indicate that shellfish were probably being utilized as a food resource, though not in quantities sufficient to allow the large-scale build-up of shell midden deposits. It is probably still an open question whether shellfish were used earlier, but the pattern of direct evidence shows virtually no use of shellfish prior to ca. 6000 BP, minor use up to ca. 5000 BP, and significantly greater use after that time.

The lack of faunal evidence makes it impossible to characterize the nature of the site occupation from ca. 10,000 to 6000 BP. After that time, it is clear that the site was more or less permanently occupied almost year round. There are three specific faunal indicators of economic activity at the site from late October through late June. Beginning with the autumn salmon fishing season, there is evidence that coho {Oncorhynchus kisutch) and chum (O. keta) were being fished. This interpretation is based on the age profile of the recovered salmon remains which shows a predominance of three- and four-year-old fish. The absence of older fish indicates the probable absence of sockeye (O. nerka), which spawn much earlier in the season, and chinook (O. tshawytscha), which probably would not be expected in the small Namu River in any case. The low number of two-year-old fish is an indication that pink salmon (O. gor- buscha) were not a major part of the Namu fishery. The availability of pink salmon in early autumn implies that salmon fishing did not begin until relatively late in the season. I see this as evidence of possible summer and early autumn absence with late autumn arrival at the site to take advantage of later salmon runs. The evidence that residents remained at the site at least until early summer comes from the presence of large quantities of herring, which would be harvested during the early spring spawn, and neonatal harbor seal, which must have been killed around the time of the mid- June peak in the pupping season. There is no way to determine whether residents remained at the site through the summer, but this would have been the time when a variety of resources would have been available at other locations. The absence of alternative resources at other locations through the winter is strong evidence to suggest that residents remained at the site between the times of the salmon and herring fisheries, and it is likely that a significant portion of the population remained through the time of the harbor seal hunt.

The emphasis on salmon implies that some form and degree of storage was also being prac-



Cannon: Northwest Coast Maritime Economies 61

ticed from at least 6000 years ago. Salmon would be available only for a limited period of time, yet it constitutes 83% of the identified fauna recovered from the earliest fauna-bearing deposits, and as much as 95% from later periods. The combination of intensive usage and limited seasonal availability necessarily implies some form of storage. While direct evidence of storage facilities is lacking, archaeologically visible features, such as storage pits, probably would not be common in the wet climate of the west coast (Suttles 1968:64). A low percentage of salmon head bones, which has been used to infer the presence of storage at other locations (Matson 1992), though weak and equivocal in itself, is also characteristic at Namu (Cannon 1991:18). Direct and unequivocal archaeological evidence of salmon storage is not available for any site or time period on the Northwest Coast, but if a resource such as salmon, which is available for harvest only during the relatively short spawning season, also constitutes the major- ity of the food consumed, then it follows that its consumption must have extended beyond the season of harvest. The conclusion that salmon storage was a significant component of the Namu subsistence economy from at least as early as 6000 BP is by far the simplest way to account for the available data.

Two key elements of the evolutionist model - sedentary settlement and storage - are therefore present at Namu from a very early time period. If they developed as the result of the selection pressures of population growth, alternative resource depletion, or a strategy of risk reduction, this must have taken place still earlier. Certainly there is no question that the technological capacity for a full and successful maritime adaptation ex- isted as early as 6000 BP. Sedentary settlement and storage also do not appear to have led to immediate pressures to intensify the production of shellfish or salmon, though salmon already accounts for 83% of the earliest recovered faunal remains. Changes that might reflect more intensive production and the possible effects of population growth are only evident some thousand years later during the period between 4775 and 3825 BP.

There are two significant trends in the later Namu subsistence economy. The first is an apparent intensification in resource production, including a dramatic increase in the utilization of salmon and later harbor seal (Table 1). The increase in salmon begins ca. 5000 BP and coincides with the initiation of full shell midden deposition. The peak in harbor seal is associated with consistently high levels of salmon fishing. Intensification of the economy therefore seems to follow the predictions of Fladmark's global palaeoecological model, though no direct environmental evidence is available to confirm that there was an actual increase in

Table 1. Temporal trends in salmon and harbor seal from Namu (salmon as a percentage of all identified fish and harbor seal as a percentage of all identified mammals).

salmon productivity. The peak in subsistence production culminates in a period of stable, large- scale occupation of the site as evidenced by the large number of burials located within a discrete area. Some of the burials also feature grave goods indicating distinctions of wealth and status.

The second major trend is a significant decline in the production of key subsistence resources. A decrease in salmon after 3500 BP coincides with a decrease in harbor seal, and in the most recent period (1880-480 BP) the percentage of salmon falls to its lowest level, though still making up 54% of the identified faunal remains. Given an existing adaptation emphasizing intensive harvest and storage of salmon, it is reasonable to attribute this decline to decreasing resource availability.

Apparent trends in faunal class abundance could be considered the result of vagaries of sampling, but subsampling experiments and bucket- auger sample analysis (Cannon 1993, 1995a) suggest the Namu trends are robust even for much smaller quantities of material. Other lines of evidence support the inference of economic decline predicated on adverse environmental changes. For example, a transition in shellfish species composi- tion from predominantly mussel to predominantly clam may indicate an increasingly silt-laden near- shore habitat, which in the lower reaches of the Namu River would have had a deleterious effect on potentially productive salmon spawning beds. The decline in oil-rich species such as salmon and harbor seal is also matched by a real increase in more marginal food sources, including deer (a relatively poor source of fat) and ratfish (Cannon 1995b). Variation in deer phalanx fracture patterns also suggests an increase in their use as a source of marrow in the periods after 3500 BP (Zita 1997); and an increase in the shell content of later period midden deposits, including large lenses of whole shells, is further evidence of transition in the subsistence economy and efforts to compensate for the decline of key resources. Growth and decline

Salmon Harbor seal Years BP NISP % NISP %

1880-480 380 65.0 1 0.8 3500-2185 9509 83.9 23 4.9 4390-3825 58,940 96.7 521 39.3 4775-4540 17,272 96.8 76 15.6 6060-5170 5720 88.4 81 19.2




in salmon consumption and consistent increase in shellfish consumption are also indicated by the results of isotopie analysis of dog bones from Namu, which show greater variability in the consumption of marine resources before and after the period of peak salmon production (Cannon et al. n.d.).

The increase in ratfish is particularly intrigu- ing because this species appears to have remark- ably little food value, except as a source of oil that is relatively tasteless and lacking in many of the nutrients found in most other fish oils. The abundance of ratfish in the site vicinity may have increased because of its preference for a muddy bot- tom habitat, but it has few qualities that would warrant its increased harvest simply because it was more available. The inverse relationship between salmon and harbor seal (oil-rich and highly valued marine resources) and deer and ratfish (marginal resources at best) is a clear indication that changes in the Namu subsistence economy are a response to the declining opportunity to sustain an intensive salmon fishery at the site. The same evidence follows a reverse trend at the Hopetown and Echo Bay sites in nearby Queen Charlotte Strait, where a dramatic decrease in ratfish and deer corresponds to a relatively late increase in salmon and harbor seal. According to the argument that exploitation is governed largely by opportunity, the increase in salmon fishing at those sites at around 2000 BP should be due to local enhancement of salmon productivity. Although direct evidence for environmental change in this case is still lacking, there is clearly a need to consider local conditions in addition to any global environmental transitions, such as those resulting from postglacial stabilization of land and sea levels.

The available evidence from Namu presents a strong case for a local subsistence economy that was firmly guided by the opportunities afforded by local environmental productivity. The inception of a fully developed maritime adaptation with a specialized focus on intensive salmon fishing oc- curs sometime before 6000 BP, and there is no rea- son to see it as anything other than the use of opportunities that should have been present from the very earliest occupation of the site. At this locality, and for much of the Northwest Coast, it is difficult to conceive of equally viable alternatives to a maritime adaptation. Terrestrial resources are not as productive and most are only available at or near the coast. The mountainous terrain and difficulty of passage into the interior along most of the coast would severely inhibit development of the type of transhumance pattern of seasonal coastal settlement documented in other regions.

The lack of early faunal remains makes it impossible to determine whether the intensification of salmon fishing was a gradual development over

the millennia prior to 6000 BP, but the focus on salmon probably developed early. The restricted seasonal availability of salmon, herring, and other resources favors the early development of storage capability (Rowley-Conwy and Zvelebil 1989), and consistency in the timing of shortage between locations reduces the effectiveness of residential mobility as a risk reduction strategy. No other resource becomes available in concentrated abundance between the time of the late fall salmon and early spring herring fisheries, and locations like Namu have the added advantage of protection from winter storms. The basic pattern of subsistence and settlement present at Namu and probably elsewhere on the coast may, therefore, have been in place essentially from the earliest occupation of the region.

Environmental opportunity, basic cultural capability, and a lack of equally viable alternatives are sufficient to account for the origin of a specialized maritime adaptation. Local conditions would guide subsequent developments. An example is the reduction in resource opportunity and resulting decline of the Namu salmon fishery. The shift from mussel to clam and the use of shellfish, ratfish, and deer to compensate for decline in salmon are also consistent with a model of adaptation governed by opportunity. The particular historical pattern of salmon fishing at Namu and other sites should warn against taking any site as representa- tive of global evolutionary developments in the maritime economy. For example, preliminary results of my current research involving auger sampling of sites in the Namu vicinity show high levels of salmon production at nearby sites that postdate the period of intensive production at Namu. The density of salmon remains at two vil- lage sites - one on the Kisameet River, 12 km to the north, and one on the Koeye River, 9 km to the south - shows a level of production comparable to the peak periods at Namu. The earliest dates at each of these sites (ca. 2400-2300 BP) correspond to the period of significant decline in the Namu fishery. The relevant conditions affecting salmon populations are simply too complex and too highly variable to allow for any single pattern in the development of fishing production. Even if a general evolutionary model were valid, a pattern of gradual increase in salmon fishing would not be evident at every site. Similarly, if a global enhancement of salmon productivity around 5000 BP did result from stabilization of sea levels, it would not be equally evident at all site localities (Cannon 1996b). Local opportunities must take precedence over global models of environmental change or cultural necessity.

Although it is easy to attribute the initiation and decline of Namu's maritime economy to the opportunities afforded by the local environment,



Contingency and Agency

Cann on : North west Coast Maritim e Econ omies 63

there is still no obvious explanation for the intensification of the economy that appears to occur around 5000 BP. If the increase in salmon fishing and shellfish collection at this time is real, it is not associated with clear evidence of enhanced productivity of either resource. The availability of shellfish was probably more or less consistent prior to this time, but exploitation was negligible before 6000 BP and only moderate between 6000 and 5000 BP. Although the increase in salmon ca. 5000 BP fits with Fladmark's model of sea level stabilization, it is not clear that sea level changes would have had a dramatic impact on small streams such as the Namu River. Even if the fishery had undergone a general enhancement, there is still no explanation for why production would increase to keep pace with productivity. In other words, there is still a problem of accounting for the element of human agency in the decision to increase salmon fishing, and a question of agency and possibly necessity in accounting for the increased emphasis on shellfish collection.

Assuming that the opportunities for a specialized maritime adaptation are present, and are prone to variable growth or decline at particular site locations, what conditions and cultural priorities govern the response to the availability of resources? In the following speculative outline, I consider a particular historical pattern of response guided by direct opportunity and historical contingency. This scenario assumes cultural recognition of salmon as a valued subsistence resource and considers the possible impact of global environmental changes and an ethos of social competitiveness typical of ethnographic Northwest Coast cultures.

The virtues of salmon as a food resource go a long way toward explaining its intensive usage. It is rich and nutritious, easily harvested in large quantity using a variety of techniques, and through storage is capable of providing subsistence during seasonal periods of food shortage. Given these qualities, a concentration on salmon would be expected simply because it was the best choice among available options. But given a long- standing and successful maritime adaptation with a specialized focus on salmon, lasting for at least 1000 years at Namu, why increase production still further? More importantly, why at around 5000 BP and not earlier? Enhanced opportunity for fishing a more productive resource is not sufficient explanation for greater production, since only a fraction of salmon runs was probably harvested at any time. The problem is to explain the choice to in- vest in greater salmon production.

To understand the role of human agency, it is useful to divide the salmon harvest into catch and

processing components. These are distinct, but any increase in production requires a cooperative effort to increase the catch and provide for its processing and storage. Based on ethnographic anal- ogy, it is also interesting to consider this division along gender lines, with men primarily responsible for the catch and women primarily responsible for the processing of fish. Men cannot increase the catch unless women are willing to increase their efforts in processing for storage. It is actually in- consequential whether the division was based on gender; the important point is that the opportunity to catch salmon more easily does not change the effort required to process the catch. An increase in productivity might make it easier to harvest more fish, but the ease of any increased harvest would be more than offset by the increased effort required to process and store the catch. Therefore, environmental opportunity cannot explain increased production. Only a cooperative effort involving a willingness to increase labor input can account for more intensive production. Basic material needs must already be met prior to any increase in production, but if the willingness to increase labor input is not based on existing need, it must be based on some other development or on a change in cultural priority.

If more fish and an easier catch are insuffi- cient to account for increased production, what can be said about enhanced opportunities for increasing processing and storage? For the south coast of British Columbia, the argument is made that the Locarno phase introduction of ground slate knives or earlier development of quartz mi- crolith technology had significant advantages for an increase in salmon processing and harvest (Matson and Coupland 1995:176). Taking essentially the same argument back still further in time, there was a technological development associated with global environmental change that could have enhanced opportunities for storage around 5000 BP. This period on the Northwest Coast was marked by a significant change in climate and vegetation. The climate became wetter and cooler than it had been previously (Mathewes and Heusser 1981), and changes in vegetation saw expansion of the great cedar forests of the region. The use of cedar for almost every aspect of material culture is as characteristic of the Northwest Coast culture pattern as fishing, and the development of woodworking technology closely follows the expansion of cedar forests (Hebda and Math- ewes 1984). The same development also might have had a major impact on changes in fishing strategies. The large cedar plank houses of the Northwest Coast provided abundant room in the rafters and square corners for the drying and storage of salmon and other foodstuffs (Suttles 1968: 63-64), and cedar was also made into boxes and




baskets that were used for food storage. The contingent development of a cedar woodworking technology at the same time that the productivity of salmon may or may not have been increasing would help to explain a common pattern of expansion in maritime economies at around 5000 BP.

The advent of plank housing would certainly augment the capacity to preserve and store salmon. Still missing, however, is the motive for actually taking advantage of opportunities for increasing harvest and storage. If the choice to increase production is not a conscious or selected response to the stress of food shortage, it must derive from some other personal motivation. For the Northwest Coast, an ethos or mentality of individual and group competition, which is clearly characteristic of the ethnographic period, could, contingent on the right conditions, be a key element in the expansion of the maritime economy. Taking the willingness to increase storage as the critical element in expanded production, we could project a pattern of competition involving women's efforts, for example, to "put away" greater quantities of fish at harvest. A good contemporary illus- tration of this is documented in a case in the rural southern United States, in which rivalry among women in canning fruits and vegetables proved overwhelmingly more effective than education in encouraging greater food production and storage (Rogers 1962:86-88). The same type of motivation, in the form of friendly interpersonal and intergroup rivalry, may be all that is needed to explain the effort to increase prehistoric salmon production on the Northwest Coast. The motive is consistent with ethnographic descriptions of Northwest Coast cultures that stress the importance of status rivalry and it is more immediate and personal than concerns for long-term adaptive security. Although it is impossible to verify archaeologically, the important point is that individual motives are not necessarily governed by rationally determined or selected responses to material needs. Less apparent, but no less effective motives can bring about much the same results.

Fishing itself has an inherent capacity to fos- ter or encourage individual competition, provided the resource can sustain the harvest. Technological and strategic innovations are prolific among fishing cultures around the world, and the situation on the Northwest Coast was much the same. Fish- ing technologies, which were far more diverse and complex than simple efficiency required (Oswalt 1976:185-186), could also be attributed to an ethos of interpersonal rivalry and competition. Fishing is one of the few food extraction economies that can allow or even promote individual achievement. The return per unit is high, the resource is virtually inexhaustible, and individuals can count and compare the fish they take through

their own efforts. The competitive nature of North- west Coast culture, as exemplified by the potlatch, may have developed in part because of an early orientation to fishing. Although chiefs were ultimately responsible for the sponsorship of feasts, they depended on the collective efforts and contri- butions of individual family and corporate group members (Harkin 1997:5-9). Flexibility in the sys- tem of status recognition and legitimation provided ample opportunity and motivation for individual achievement. Variation in the ability and willingness to harvest the resources needed to sponsor feasts and potlatches, therefore, could well have been the initial basis and subsequent fuel for status rivalries, which were formally legiti- mated through feasting and ceremony.

Although a general pattern of economic intensification around 5000 years ago must be con- firmed through further research, such a development could have been contingent on enhanced opportunity for storage and an ethos of interpersonal and intergroup rivalry regardless of whether global environmental change had a significant impact on salmon productivity. A given level of productivity is a prerequisite for intensive utilization, but other elements have to enter into the decision to increase production from what is available.

Explaining the apparent development of intensive shellfish collection also requires consider- ation of individual motivation. Assuming that the lack of evidence for intensive shellfish collection prior to 5000 BP is not simply a function of preservation, what factors other than need could account for increased utilization? Setting aside arguments concerning its relative food value, it is clear that shellfish collection is neither onerous nor time- consuming (Moss 1993). Several recent studies have stressed that time spent collecting shellfish was a generally pleasurable form of family recre- ation involving groups of women and their chil- dren (Claassen 1991; Meehan 1982). Given free- dom from the everyday requirements of food acquisition and preparation afforded by large stores of salmon, time could be devoted to more pleasurable if not more efficient forms of food gathering. If perceived as an opportunity to add to an already abundant food supply, initial intensification of shellfish gathering is more readily explained as an expression of individual ambition than population necessity. Long before becoming a necessary staple of the Northwest Coast diet (Erlandson 1988), friendly rivalry between family groups could have been responsible initially for the intensification of shellfish collection.

Availability for consumption may also have played a role in encouraging a later increase in shellfish collection. Recent palaeoecological research in northern Europe has documented evidence for an increase in the incidence of algae re-



Discussion

Conclusion

Cann on : North west Coast Maritime Economies 65

sponsible for paralytic shellfish poisoning during periods of climatic amelioration (Nordberg 1989). There are ongoing efforts to relate these environmental developments to the transition from a maritime fishing and gathering economy toward the adoption of agriculture in Denmark. Warmer and drier climatic conditions on the Northwest Coast prior to ca. 5000 BP suggest the possibility that there was greater incidence of paralytic shellfish poisoning as the result of so called "red-tide" algal blooms. This may have inhibited shellfish consumption until conditions became cooler and wetter. The important role of shellfish poisoning in governing shellfish consumption is well documented ethnographically (Moss 1993), but its po- tential role in longer-term subsistence trends has yet to be explored.

Although the pattern of contingency and agency outlined above is speculative, it helps to define some directions and priorities for future research. I think the first priority should be to establish the environmental conditions that enable or inhibit maritime adaptations. The difficulty of this task in itself is enormous. After decades of research, it is still difficult to explain the variable productivity of marine resources in contemporary environments. But we should look for evidence of resource fluctuations before resorting to more elaborate explanations involving cultural migration or population expansion. It should be possible, for example, to monitor the sedimentation of rivers and the effects of features such as lakes or estuar- ies on salmon production. Samples of offshore sediments can also be examined for evidence of changes in shellfish species and habitats, while microscopic analysis could reveal changes in the incidence of microorganisms such as the algae responsible for shellfish poisoning, which would have a direct impact on human dietary choices. Pollen studies also have an important role in studies of Northwest Coast subsistence. Vegetation cover is an important determinant of salmon stream productivity, and, as with cedar, there can be major technological implications resulting from changes in vegetation. Alternative subsistence opportunities also need to be evaluated. What is the population of land mammals, such as deer, for example, and what costs are involved in their exploitation given the terrain and forest cover of coastal environments? Finally, given the opportunities available, we need to understand the nutri- tional and cultural values attached to various food resources (see, for example Cannon 1995b; Erland- son 1988; Moss 1993).

With the increase in detailed zooarchaeological research, archaeology has come a long way in

the analysis and interpretation of the contents of sites, but on the Northwest Coast we are still not getting an adequate sense of the wider environmental contexts from which faunal resources were extracted. Once the ecological parameters of maritime adaptations are established, it should be possible to determine whether cultural transitions are contingent on shifting environmental opportunities.

The next priority is to investigate the technological capacity for an intensive maritime economy. The difficulties of this task arise from the emphasis on perishable materials in Northwest Coast fishing technologies. But an increasing number of sites are producing perishable artifacts, such as fish weirs, and this is pushing back the time of intensive salmon harvesting technology (e.g., Eldridge and Acheson 1992).

Once the opportunity, contingent timing, and technological capacity for marine fishing are un- derstood, greater attention can be turned toward the role of less tangible factors. Population growth and resource depletion, for example, will be very difficult to establish independently, and it may be even more difficult to establish their timing relative to the development of maritime adaptations. The issue of human agency is possibly even less amenable to direct archaeological investigation, but unique cultural and historical factors will have to be considered in any realistic explanation of economic transitions.

Explanations for long-term developments in maritime economies ultimately will have to en- compass the short-term scale of individual choice, and the long-term scale of global environmental change, while allowing for distinct medium-term trends in local environmental and historical circumstances. The increasing quantity and quality of zooarchaeological data are clearly making it difficult to sustain simple theoretical models of maritime adaptation. The next step in the process of investigation must be to expand the range of evidence brought to bear on these questions, while putting some of the unresolvable theoretical de- bates on hold for a while.

Namu provides very early evidence for intensive salmon and herring fishing, storage, and sedentary settlement. Maritime adaptations at this site cannot, therefore, be explained as the result of a gradual, long-term evolution of adaptive efficiency culminating in the late development or "achievement" of cultural complexity (Matson and Coup- land 1995) and the ethnographically recorded pattern of Northwest Coast cultures. Instead, Namu exhibits a highly particular history that appears contingent on local and regional circumstances.



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66 Arctic An thropology 35:1

The economic history of Namu may bear some similarities to proposed regional trends, but it also differs significantly from other sites, including those within a radius of as little as 12 km, and far more for the Northwest Coast region as a whole.

Local and regional trends in maritime economies can be explained as readily by contingent circumstances and human agency as by uni- form evolutionary processes, and though both are highly speculative, the former has the advantage oi opening greater avenues for investigation and dis- covery, and ultimately promises a richer under- standing of the complex histories of Northwest Coast cultures.

Acknowledgments. I thank the organizers of the seminar for their invitation to participate and the Arts Research Board of McMaster University for granting the travel funds that enabled my partici- pation. Conference participants made very useful comments on the initial draft of this paper. I thank Madonna Moss in particular. I also acknowledge the helpful comments and suggestions of Lee Lyman and two anonymous reviewers. Debbi Yee Cannon provided valuable critical commentary on the text and drafted Figure 1.

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Documents

North Pacific and Bering Sea Maritime Societies: The Archaeology of Prehistoric and Early Historic Coastal Peoples || Contingency and Agency in the Growth of Northwest Coast Maritime