The Role of Lactating Mothers in High-Elevation Seasonal Occupational Durations in the Rocky Mountains

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Three Sides of a Career: Papers in Honor of Robert L. Kelly" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The study of high elevation archaeology in the Rocky Mountains continues to enhance our understanding of the seasonal rounds of precontact hunter-gatherers in the region. Yet the specific seasonality and quantity of time Indigenous people spent at high elevations each year is unclear. Ethnographically, we know that hunter-gatherers in general, and Native Americans in particular, spent summer months in extended family groups. Because of the demographics of hunter-gatherers, and the tendency of hunter-gatherer women to breastfeed each child for 3–4 years, most family groups would have contained a lactating mother. Interdisciplinary medical and anthropological research indicates that lactation is physically expensive, demanding additional calories, vitamins, and nutrients, while high elevation environments increase demands on the body through hypoxia, cold temperatures, and difficult topography. This paper hypothesizes that, if there is a physiological limit to how much time a family group could spend hunting and gathering at high elevations, the needs of the lactating mother would provide that limit. Additionally, I hypothesize that her needs would direct the kinds of resource procurement the group would prioritize.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Three Sides of a Career: Papers in Honor of Robert L. Kelly   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40086.0