Thursday, April 20, 2023 at 4:00 p.m. MDT
Online Webinar
Territoriality, or the exclusion of competitors from resource patches, is an important strategy among a wide variety of human groups and is a continual topic of interest for researchers investigating human social organization and resource conflict. While scholars have proposed numerous archaeological markers of territoriality, these indicators are often established using qualitative observation and speculation rather than standardized methods and quantitative tests. In this presentation, Dr. McCool investigates the link between archaeological data and territoriality using Fremont sites from Nine Mile Canyon (NMC), Utah and geospatial statistical tests. For over a century, researchers have suggested the presence of NMC archaeological sites with explicit defensive functions. The existence of large tower structures and remote storage units have led many to hypothesize that these features were part of a Fremont strategy to maintain territorial boundaries and defend resources from theft or raids. Here, the presenter focuses on the tower sites and their relationship to Fremont territoriality. His results support the hypothesis that the tower sites of NMC functioned as defensive refuges. The presence of refuge sites reveals that the NMC Fremont avoided the confrontations necessary to exclude competitors and maintain territorial boundaries. Weston proposes an explanatory model relating to seasonal mobility and settlement dispersion to explain why the costs of territoriality may have outweighed the benefits.
This webinar is suitable for lifelong learners from high school students to adults; this lesson is free.
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