Negotiating Watery Worlds: Impacts and Implications of the Use of Watercraft in Small-Scale Societies

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Negotiating Watery Worlds: Impacts and Implications of the Use of Watercraft in Small-Scale Societies" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This session brings together archaeological case studies and theoretical frameworks that focus on the use and impact of watercraft in small-scale societies around the world. Present research on the role of boats and water transport in maritime societies has stressed the necessity of theorizing watercraft as both a means of transportation and instrument of production, and how these technologies structured social contexts, fueled and curtailed political centralization, and shaped world views. Case studies in this session stress a comparative approach in order to further our understanding of the interplay between aquatic environments, watercraft technology, and social change, ranging from studies focused on seafaring and organizational strategies (settlement and mobility patterns, ways of transport) to those concerned with social and ideological dimensions of society (gender, social complexity, exchange networks, identity, and ontologies).