Why did Archaic Native Americans shift to foraging and hunting smaller animals?

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ARCHAEOLOGISTS use the term Archaic to describe the many different hunting and gathering cultures that descended from Paleo-Indians and the long period of time when those cultures dominated the history of ancient America — roughly from 10,000 BP to somewhere between 4000 BP and 3000 BP. The term describes the era in the history of ancient America that followed the Paleo-Indian big-game hunters and preceded the development of agriculture. It denotes a hunter-gatherer way of life that persisted in North America long after European colonization.

Like their Paleo-Indian ancestors, Archaic Indians hunted with spears, but they also took smaller game with traps, nets, and hooks. Unlike their Paleo-Indian predecessors, most Archaic peoples prepared food from wild plants by using a variety of stone tools. A characteristic Archaic artifact is a grinding stone used to pulverize seeds into edible form. Most Archaic Indians migrated from place to place to harvest plants and hunt animals. They usually did not establish permanent villages, although they often returned to the same river valley or fertile meadow year after year. In regions with especially rich resources — such as present-day California and the Pacific Northwest — they developed permanent settlements. Archaic peoples followed these practices in distinctive ways in the different environmental regions of North America (Map 1.2).

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Folsom Point at Wild Horse Arroyo
In 1927, paleontologist J. D. Figgins found this spear point embedded between the fossilized ribs of a bison that had been extinct for ten thousand years. Subsequently named the Folsom point, this discovery stimulated archaeologists to rethink the history of ancient Americans and to uncover fresh evidence of their many cultures. All rights reserved, Photo Archives, Denver Museum of Natural History.

CHRONOLOGY

ca. 10,000–3000 BP

  • Archaic hunter-gatherer cultures dominate ancient America.

ca. 5000 BP

  • Chumash culture emerges in southern California.

ca. 4000 BP

  • Eastern Woodland peoples practice agriculture and make pottery.

ca. 2500 BP

  • Eastern Woodland cultures cultivate corn.

ca. AD 500

  • Great Plains hunters begin to use bows and arrows.

hunter-gatherer

image A way of life that involved hunting game and gathering food from naturally occurring sources, as opposed to engaging in agriculture and animal husbandry. Archaic Indians and their descendants survived in North America for centuries as hunter-gatherers.

Archaic Indians

image Hunting and gathering peoples who descended from Paleo-Indians and dominated the Americas from 10,000 BP to between 4000 and 3000 BP.

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MAP 1.2 Native North American Cultures
Environmental conditions defined the boundaries of the broad zones of cultural similarity among ancient North Americans.
>MAP ACTIVITY
READING THE MAP: What crucial environmental features set the boundaries of each cultural region? (The topography indicated on Map 1.3, “Native North Americans about 1500,” may be helpful.)
CONNECTIONS: How did environmental factors and variations affect the development of different groups of Native American cultures? Why do you think historians and archaeologists group cultures together by their regional positions?

CHAPTER LOCATOR

When and why do historians rely on the work of archaeologists?

How and why did humans migrate into North America?

Why did Archaic Native Americans shift to foraging and hunting smaller animals?

How did agriculture influence Native American cultures?

What cultural similarities did native peoples of the Western Hemisphere share in the 1490s?

Why was tribute important in the Mexican empire?

Conclusion: How do we understand the worlds of ancient Americans?

image LearningCurve

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