Did Bears Make the Fur Trade Possible? Seasonal Resource Scheduling during Wisconsin’s Early and Middle Historic Periods

Summary

Data have been found to suggest increased consumption of bear meat at Eastern Wisconsin sites during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. While bear remains are rare at these sites, they occur at generally higher densities than at Late Prehistoric Late Woodland and Oneota sites in the same region. Ethnohistoric evidence, supported by zooarchaeological data from the eighteenth century Meskwaki Grand Village (Bell Site) indicate that ritualized disposal behaviors may have impacted the archaeological visibility of bears, even after they became a more common dietary component. The increased consumption of bears appears to be related to changes in settlement and subsistence patterns associated with the influx of resettled peoples, their fur-trading related scheduling needs, climate change, and possible shifts in belief systems related to the great cultural stresses of the period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• An Other-Than-Human Being: The Archaeology of Bears in North America   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15828