Investigating the Sex Selectivity of Middle Iroquoian Salmonid Fisheries through Ancient DNA Analysis

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Lake Ontario once supported large populations of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush). However, by the mid-19th century populations of these salmonid species had collapsed as a result of overharvesting and habitat alteration by European settlers. Prior to this collapse, it has been hypothesized Indigenous peoples were able to maintain the productivity of Lake Ontario Atlantic salmon and lake trout stocks through the use of resource management strategies. In this study, we sought to examine whether sex-selective fishing was one of the strategies Middle Iroquoians used to manage Lake Ontario salmonids. To test this hypothesis, we attempted to assign sex identities to Atlantic salmon and lake trout remains from the Middle Iroquoian (ca. AD 1250-1300) Antrex site (AjGv-38), Ontario, Canada, using DNA-based assays that screen for the presence of the salmonid master sex-determining gene (sdY). The results of this study provide new insights into the fishing strategies of pre-Contact Ontario Iroquoians.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25441