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Of Ethnohistory, Archaeology, and Playing with Fire: A Comment on Foster and Cohen 2007

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Joshua Piker
Joshua Piker*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019 (jpiker@ou.edu)
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Abstract

This Comment interrogates claims made by Foster and Cohen (2007) regarding eighteenth-century Creek Indian hunting strategies. It argues that Foster and Cohen’s attempts to link the archaeological and ethnohistorical record are flawed because of their misreading of the latter. The "Comment" demonstrates that Creeks did not—contra Foster and Cohen (2007)—conduct large-scale hunts near their communities or frequently rely on fire-drives. Thus, pollen and charcoal samples gathered by Foster and Cohen (2007) from the neighborhood of those communities speak to activities other than hunting.

Resumen

Resumen

El Comentario cuestiona las conclusiones que Foster y Cohen (2007) presentan acerca de las estrategias de caza de los indígenas Creek en el siglo XVIII. El texto argumenta que aunque Foster y Cohen intentan relacionar datos arqueológicos con datos etno-históricos, su lectura de éstos últimos no es correcta. En contraposición con Foster y Cohen, el "Comentario" demuestra que los indígenas Creek no cazaban en grandes cantidades en las cercanías de sus comunidades ni frequentemente utilizaban fuego en su cacería. Asíí, las muestras de polen y carbón recolectadas por Foster y Cohen en las vecindades de estas comunidades hacen explícita la existencia de actividades diferentes a la caza.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 75 , Issue 4 , October 2010 , pp. 966 - 972
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2010

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References

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