The Evolution of Complex Hunter-Gatherers : Archaeological Evidence from the North Pacific

This book makes a contribution to the developing field of complex hunter-gatherer studies with an archaeological analysis of the development of one such group.

This book examines the evolution of complex hunter-gatherers on the North Pacific coast of Alaska.

It strives to account for the dynamics and processes that transformed a population from low density, disaggregated, relatively mobile, and relatively egalitarian organizations into the demographically dense, sedentary, aggregated, militaristic, and ranked/stratified populations around the North Pacific by the time of ethnographic contact.

To do so, this book examines seven thousand years of archaeological history on the Kodiak Archipelago - a region that 250 years ago was part of a broader phenomenon of complex hunter-gatherers ringing the North American Pacific Northwest Coast from California to the Aleutian Islands.

This is one of the first books available to examine in depth the social evolution of a specific complex hunter-gatherer tradition on the North Pacific Rim.

As such, it provides readers with an intimate look at archaeological evidence integrated into a problem-oriented study of emergent complex hunter-gatherers.