Archaeological Bear Ceremonialism Interpreted through Tooth Measurements and Wear from Black Bears of Known Life History
Author(s): David Mather
Year: 2025
Summary
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
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Concentrations of black bear (Ursus americanus) remains were examined from four Late Woodland archaeological features related to Kathio National Landmark in Minnesota, representing single ceremonial events in the history of the Dakota Nation. Archaeologically, they were superficially similar, consisting of fragmented bear cranial bone and teeth, with the cheek teeth (molars 1-3 and 4<sup>th</sup> premolar) most consistently well preserved. The analytical power of these teeth as datasets was realized through comparative study with recent skulls from black bears of known life history, derived from a long-term wildlife biology project. This identified statistically significant differences in tooth size for male and female bears, and a reference for Mary Stiner’s ursid tooth wear index developed to assess the relative age at death for Late Pleistocene bears. Combined with archaeological context, this revealed zooarchaeological variability in the feature assemblages related to the purpose of the rituals, within and beyond the scope of A. Irving Hallowell’s classic anthropological concept of bear ceremonialism.
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Cite this Record
Archaeological Bear Ceremonialism Interpreted through Tooth Measurements and Wear from Black Bears of Known Life History. David Mather. Presented at The 90th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2025 ( tDAR id: 510957)
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Record Identifiers
Abstract Id(s): 53142