A Demographic History of Housepit 54, Bridge River site, British Columbia

Summary

Demographic change can have significant impacts on socio-economic and political strategies employed by complex foraging and fishing peoples. Recent research at the Bridge River housepit village, located near Lillooet, British Columbia, has demonstrated that two short periods of rapid demographic growth followed by a period of decline led to significant changes in food acquisition and storage, settlement arrangements, and social relationships. While these patterns are well understood on a village-wide scale, shifts in household demography have not been adequately addressed. This poster presents the first analysis of intergenerational demographic change at Bridge River drawing data from excavations of Housepit (HP) 54, a long-lived medium-sized residential structure. More specifically, we develop data from at least seven superimposed anthropogenic floors at HP 54 dating ca. 1100-1400 cal. B.P. to test hypotheses regarding relationships between demographic patterns and subsistence decision-making, storage behavior, and patterns of social competition and cooperation. We expect to draw implications from this research that can enhance our understanding of village-wide trends.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Housepit 54 Project at Bridge River, British Columbia: Archaeological Perspectives on Demography, Cultural Inheritance, and Household History   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage