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

CHAPTER 14
FROM HUNTER-GATHERER CAMP TO HORTICULTURAL VILLAGE:
Late Prehistoric Indigenous Subsistence and Settlement
James B. Petersen and Ellen R. Cowie
INTRODUCTION
Native populations in northeastern North America,
or the Northeast, demonstrated various subsistence
and settlement patterns during the 1500s and 1600s at
the time of first contact with European intruders. For
the purposes of this chapter, the Northeast is roughly
defined as the woodlands region to the north of the
Carolinas, to the east of Ohio, and to the south of the
Gulf of St. Lawrence in Quebec. In the colder, more
restrictive latitudes of the Northeast, indigenous
groups were hunter-gatherers who moved seasonally
across the landscape when first recorded by
Europeans. In the more southerly latitudes, including
eastern New York and the Middle Atlantic area, for
example, the Natives who first met Europeans were
farmers, living for longer periods—even permanently—in
large substantial settlements. By the 1600s,
southern Quebec and northern New England clearly
formed the rough border between these generalized
patterns, although local variations existed across the
broad region. Yet, uncertainty remains about just when
and where regional differences between farmers and
nonfarmers existed, to what degree farming transformed
Native societies, and whether European contact
and/or indigenous factors were responsible for its
introduction. Also, we might ask what it is about farming
that led to its adoption in the Northeast and elsewhere.
What were the historical and environmental
factors that brought it to the region and structured its
prehistoric distribution?
This chapter addresses at least the more “simple” of
these questions from the perspective of northern New
England, with emphasis on the transition zone between
hunter-gatherers and horticulturalists, and the archaeological
correlates that accompanied the local introduction
of farming. As defined here, northern New
England includes Maine, New Hampshire, and
Vermont. We suggest that the seeds of substantial
change occurred regionally in terms of settlement patterns
during the Middle Woodland period, before ca.
A.D. 1000, at least in some settings. Subsistence
change perhaps began by this time or more clearly
during the subsequent early Late Woodland period,
ca. A.D. 1000-1300, as Native peoples adopted subsistence
farming extensively and began to settle for
longer periods in larger settlements. Although differentially
distributed, these changes occurred in much
of the Northeast, especially in areas to the south and
west of northern New England. These progressively
more substantial changes became widespread during
the final portion of the Late Woodland, ca. A.D. 1300-
1550/1600, and produced the early historic societies
known through ethnohistory and archaeology.
We use the terms “farming” and “horticulture”
interchangeably in this chapter, distinguishing them
from “agriculture” per se following one anthropological
convention. This convention recognizes “horticulture”
as “simple” farming undertaken using solely
human labor without the use of draft animals and irrigation
and in most cases, little or no fertilizer.
“Shifting,” “swidden,” or “slash and burn” are used
synonymously for this sort of farming, among other
terms, to denote its relatively extensive land use.
“Agriculture” employs several or more innovations
relative to “horticulture,” sometimes including draft
animals, irrigation, and/or fertilizer, among others
things and is more consistently based on intensive,
rather than extensive, land use.
In any case, we believe that the adoption of maizebeans-squash
horticulture was a significant event for
most northeastern Natives and that it rather quickly
brought some of the largest changes ever to affect
indigenous societies before the arrival of the
Northeast Subsistence-Settlement Change: A.D. 700–1300 by John P. Hart and Christina B. Rieth. New York State Museum
© 2002 by the University of the State of New York, The State Education Department, Albany, New York. All rights reserved.
Chapter 14 From Hunter-Gatherer Camp to Horticultural Village: Late Prehistoric Indigenous Subsistence and Settlement 265