A Canadian Perspective on Later Paleoindian Technocomplexes and Emerging Genetic Data

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Paleo Lithics to Legacy Management: Ruthann Knudson—Inawa’sioskitsipaki" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ruthann Knudson had an abiding interest in the later Paleoindian world and an affinity for Canadian research, keeping in regular touch with colleagues across the 49th parallel. Geneticists consistently identify three clades in the early prehistory of the New World: an ancient Beringian population in Alaska, and early northern and southern clades south of the ice masses. The northern clade contained ancestors of the Haida, Tlingit, Tsmishian, Athapaskans, Algonquians, and Salish. Early Holocene language identities are essentially beyond the range of the comparative method in historical linguistics, yet this northern clade would eventually yield the northern speech communities of the later Holocene. While it would be folly to think that it would be a simple matter to correlate technocomplexes of the later Paleoindian world with language identities, it is worth asking just which technocomplexes and social behaviors might have been involved in this time range. Eastern Beringian populations and people from south of the ice masses came into contact with each other by the fluted point era; emerging genetic perspectives should serve to sharpen our interest in subsequent Cody Complex and northern Plano manifestations, as well as intriguing toolstone distributions from this early Holocene timeframe.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paleo Lithics to Legacy Management: Ruthann Knudson—Inawa’sioskitsipaki   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32409