Northeast Subsistence-Settlement Change: A.D. 700 –1300

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J. Skiba
Figure 2.1. Map of the central Ohio River Valley.
population) will be favored by selection and thus
retained. Leonard and Reed (1993) use the concept of
“replicative success” to describe the differential
retainment and spread of successful ideas and suites
of behaviors by selection.
The basic selective component of selectionist theory
is natural selection, which acts upon variation
(Leonard and Reed 1993; Lyman and O’Brien 1998;
O’Brien and Holland 1990; Teltser 1995). According to
the selectionist model, archaeology is concerned with
that component of the human phenotype acquired
from others, that is, learned behavior (Leonard and
Reed 1993:649). Such behavior, together with its material
products, is transmitted both temporally and spatially
between individuals who are members of
human groups. The differential expressions of behavior,
which can be seen as the differential retaining or
persistence of traits, can be seen archaeologically. The
traits themselves can be either behavioral or material
in nature. While a culture can change or be transformed
in the absence of variation (Leonard and Reed
1993), selection cannot operate without the existence
of variation. O’Brien and Holland (1990:38-40) maintain
that the retention of a trait, such as a tactic or a
buffering mechanism, is entirely dependent upon its
ability to confer some degree of fitness upon its possessor,
such that it is replicated (differential reproduction)
by other members of the population to achieve
the same result. Thus, utilizing a selectionist model, it
is possible to develop a better understanding of subsistence/settlement
dynamics in terms of strategies
and tactics.
Changes in the social, economic, and technological
spheres (changes that can be detected archaeologically
within settlement data) can be perceived as
attempts (strategies and tactics) by populations to
overcome perturbations (a type of risk) caused by
variables such as environmental change, population
growth, and population aggregation (cf. Boserup
1965). However, the rate of change, its direction, and
its occurrence within any one sphere across a landscape
are nonsynchronized, variable, and highly timedependent.
Some of these tactics or perceived solutions can
also be viewed as risk management responses by
prehistoric populations. In one such model of risk
12 Church and Nass