Five Seasons with the Dukha: House Structure among Nomadic Herders

Summary

This is an abstract from the "More Than Shelter from the Storm: Hunter-Gatherer Houses and the Built Environment" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Houses are common structures, and the importance and distinction of domestic space has been researched a great detail through ethnography. Yet, how these common structures shape the spatial behavior of residents is often not clearly articulated. This is a particular concern for ephemeral structures that are all too common in hunter-gatherer archaeology. In the absence of clear demarcations of interior space, discard patterns associated with hearths have provided a means of identifying the presence of a house, but what else can be said about this built environment? Our five-year study of Dukha reindeer herders of northern Mongolia provides quantitative observations of how house structures influence human spatial behavior. In total, we have nearly 5,000 internal observations of individuals documenting identity, activity, and objects used. This dataset demonstrates the structured nature of spatial behavior within the household. We explore both physical and social factors influencing where people situate themselves within the context of the house design and layout. The loci of activities observed provide a new archaeological tool to investigate the influences of the built environment on human behavior.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• More Than Shelter from the Storm: Hunter-Gatherer Houses and the Built Environment   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25754