Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

162 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY
omic transformation of a consequences population
composed of whole animals. Such an assumption
is probably not warranted in many
midden samples. For instance, Pitts (1979:37-38)
has recently suggested that antler counts may be
a poor estimator of the frequency of deer carcasses
at Star Carr since antlers were scavenged for
manufacture into tools. A general statement describing
the nature of the problem is provided by
Binford (1978:477-478):
Faunal assemblages are commonly the consequences of
multiple segmental strategies ultimately converging on locations
where consumer or social utility concerns
dominate.... Faunal assemblages are commonly compounded
populations resulting from multiple decisions made
about anatomical segments, not animals.
These observations help to focus the conflicting
interpretations of the Mowry Bluff sample.
Clearly, the excavation concentrated on areas
where "consumer activity" dominated—as Falk
(1969) indicates, the bison and deer samples
mostly contain tools or the raw material for tools.
Kill and processing areas were not encountered.
The animal segments represented are a selection
drawn from whole carcasses. Gilbert's (1979)
analysis of the effect of selection for tools on
faunal assemblages indicates that these selected
segments may be poor estimators of either diet or
animal mortality. A positive conclusion that
should be drawn is that the Mowry Bluff bone
tools should not be used in frequency estimation
(for a similar conclusion, see Hesse and Perkins,
1974), and that other bone types would be better
indicators. Second, the specialized nature of the
Mowry Bluff samples indicates that only one part
of a sequential animal use strategy spread over
several site locations was recovered archeologically.
Therefore, it is invalid to speak of a total
number of animals, as is possible in many bison
kill sites. The frequencies measured by bone
counts of midden deposits are relative values. An
unanswered question is whether the sequential
animal use strategy of this part of the Plains was
unilineal or radiating. Very different interpretations
would have to be put on a sample if, instead
of one kill site serving one processing site that
serves one consuming site, the pattern was dendritic,
with one kill site serving the needs of
several consuming sites.
A second measure often employed to estimate
the frequency of a species in a deposit is the total
number of bone fragments assigned to that species
(E). An important trephic bias affects this estimator.
If one species can be recognized from
many bone elements, while another can only be
recognized from a few, the likelihood that an
individual animal of the first species will be
counted is enhanced. The error associated with
this kind of bias can be avoided by compiling a
hierarchy of comparisons for the different taxonomic
categories used. For example, if in a collection
containing three taxa, taxon A can be distinguished
from taxa B and C for every bone type,
but B and C can only be distinguished on the
basis of mandible morphology it is more accurate
to use a pair of ratios A : B + C and B : C to
express species frequency, than a single ratio A :
B :C.
Interdependence is another source of bias in
total specimen counts (Grayson, 1973:432; Lyman,
1979:536). Counting the different parts of
the skeleton together creates the possibility that
a single carcass will actually be counted more
than once. Just how important a bias interdependence
is depends on the kind of site that is
excavated (how many of the end products of the
total cultural inventory of multiple sequential
strategies are represented in the sample) and the
size of the sample with respect to the actual finds
population. At one end of the spectrum are kill
sites, where single short episodes of slaughter
create the physical consequences population. Because
sample size is large and geological observations
indicate a majority of the original deposition
was recovered, interdependence is extremely
high. On the other hand, when the sample
studied is small, and the site is large and was
occupied for a long time, the probability of interdependence
is related to the size of the area over
which the bones of a typical carcass eventually
come to rest—the degree of technological and
perthotaxic disarticulation—and the kind of sam-