"Bones are Not Enough": Research in Honor of Diane Gifford-Gonzalez

DOCUMENT Citation Only Cristie Boone.

While behavioral ecology approaches to human subsistence in archaeology often focus on calories, nutritional content is another aspect that can influence a resource’s desirability. In particular, fats are an important dietary source of easily digestible calories for hunter-gatherers. Proximate composition (fat, protein, moisture, and ash) is presented here for several fish species commonly found in archaeological sites along the central California coast, and combined with data drawn from the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Katheryn Twiss.

Diane Gifford-Gonzalez has written numerous zooarchaeological papers that wonderfully balance attention to both the ecosystemic and the cultural influences that shape how humans interact with animals. In a 2008 essay exploring zooarchaeology’s potential contributions to the study of daily life, she wrote that pastoralists’ herd management strategies are constructed in the contexts not only of regional ecosystems and animal biologies, but also of human economies, ideologies and politics. At the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Terry Jones. Ken Gobalet.

In much of Native western North America fish and the aquatic technologies used to exploit them were associated with intensive hunter-gatherer economies and heightened levels of socio-political complexity. Central California, however, is more commonly associated with exploitation of acorns, a resource that also encouraged dense, sedentary, storage-dependent populations The relative significance of fish to these less populous foraging groups has only recently become a focus of systematic study....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Laura Scheiber.

Zooarchaeological research is nearly impossible without comprehensive comparative collections that aid in the identification and analysis of archaeofauna. Throughout her career, Diane Gifford Gonzalez has been a strong proponent of developing and maintaining comparative research collections of modern and ancient vertebrate specimens. In this paper, I discuss the current state of zooarchaeological collections in twenty-first century scholarship. I highlight the William R. Adams Zooarchaeological...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Anneke Janzen. Marie Balasse.

Specialized pastoralism emerged in Kenya around 3000 years ago and has adapted with changes in the social and ecological landscape to this day. Ethnographic research has documented significant changes in herding strategies among pastoral groups throughout colonial and post-colonial periods. Stable isotope analysis sheds light on how crucial mobility was in maintaining herds before the appearance of iron-using and –producing peoples in the region. Intra-tooth sequential sampling of livestock...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stanley Ambrose. Fiona Marshall. Steven Goldstein.

Negative impacts of pastoralists on African savannas have been debated but creation of nutrient hotspots may have significant positive effects. African savanna productivity is largely nutrient limited, however, ecologists show corrals in abandoned Maasai pastoral settlements have high nitrogen and phosphate levels, and distinctive vegetation and grazing successions. Such hotspots may drive ecosystem structure and function, but little is known about how long-term or how widespread they may be....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Karen Lupo.

Although ethnoarchaeology is viewed as an important tool of analogy for the archaeological record, it has been criticized as being too descriptive, context bound, and limited by the generation of cautionary tales. These and other criticisms have inadvertently led to a sharp decline in ethnoarchaeological research in recent times. In this paper I argue that ethnoarchaeology is an underutilized methodology that can be expanded with new technologies to test and shed light on the nature of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Noah Thomas.

As a scholar, novelist and poet, Diane Gifford Gonzalez’s contribution to archaeology is proof that the pursuit of the arts as a personal endeavor enriches practice. Artistic practice fosters perception of associative relationships, develops a trust in the intuitive, and cultivates personal skill sets linking material media, form and meaning. In engaging in such parallel practices Gifford Gonzalez has fostered an approach to archaeology that has bridged the gap between positivist and post-modern...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jun Sunseri.

Taking on graduate students and shepherding them through the harrowing process of becoming PhD’s is something few faculty take lightly. Within the rigorous methodological sub-discipline of Zooarchaeology, even fewer would commit to the requisite long and close apprenticeship with students whose backgrounds lay "outside of the box" of faunal-focused research. Yet, Diane populated her research cluster with a dynamic mixture of scholars from disparate backgrounds, just as she kept the famous...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gary Brown.

The distinction between generalized hunter-gatherers and economic specialists has long interested archaeologists reliant on faunal and floral remains. Resource-processing features provide another line of evidence to address the topic, though specialized facilities do not necessarily imply patterns of specialized subsistence. Chumash inhabitants of the Santa Monica Mountains provide a case in point. Earth ovens interpreted as specialized resource-processing facilities are commonly excavated, yet...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Silvana Rosenfeld.

Chavín de Huantar (1000-500 BC Peru) has long has been considered a major center in the central Andes given its complex architecture and art. Mostly based on art depiction, ritual at Chavín has long been associated with psychoactive plant ingestion. Stone sculptures show the hallucinogenic San Pedro cactus, as well as the representation of monstrous animals and supernatural beings interpreted as priests transforming into animals during hallucinogen consumption. Inspired by Diane...