The caribou/wild reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) has been a major resource for many human populations in northern North America and Eurasia for tens of thousands of years. The species is generally represented by prehistorians as providing an ample, easily exploited, and highly reliable resource base for humans. In this paper a number of specific assumptions leading to this view are examined in the light of new data on North American caribou and caribou-hunting Eskimo groups. The conventional picture is found to be largely untenable.

A preliminary study of the form and fracture patterns of sheep metatarsals from Jaguar Cave is used to illustrate a method for the quantitative analysis of primitive bone fracturing techniques. Criteria of form, fracture, and function are defined and weighted, on the basis of experiments with green bone, and the aid of computers is enlisted to process the archaeological specimens via these criteria. The data is searched for: a. the definition of a technique of intentional fracture, b. the formation of classes of intentionally fractured and retouched bone fragments, and c. the identification of statistically perfect tools and not-tools, determined by higher or lower correlations of weighted sums. Conclusions are drawn from the analysis of the Jaguar Cave bone and bone from other early collections. The application of linear decision theory to the analysis of bone fractures was first attempted in a Ph.D. dissertation (Sadek-Kooros 1966), and a shorter version of the present paper was read at the Thirty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, on May 2, 1969.

During the last purely aboriginal period in the southeastern United States, most, if not all, of the settlements in the interior areas were fortified, implying a cultural pattern of extensive warfare. This paper examines the nature and function of defensive works protecting the sites and advances the hypothesis that warfare at this time resulted from competition for arable land.

The remains of fishes are a commonly encountered item in many archaeological sites, yet a thorough utilization of all the relevant information inherent in this material is rarely made by the archaeologist. Certain salient characteristics of the growth and ecology of fishes are presented. Examples are included using archaeological fish remains to indicate or substantiate such things as seasonal dating, absolute dating, estimates of prehistoric food resource locations, and environmental change. Examples will be presented from western North America and southern France.

Examination of a recently abandoned modern rural house-site in northern Costa Rica was undertaken in an attempt to gain insights into the absence of comparable sites from the Precolumbian archaeological record. The site was thoroughly described, a number of hypotheses based on artifactual evidence were advanced, and the former occupants were then interviewed. Abandonment and post-abandonment behavior by the occupants and others stongly influenced the material culture remains and potential archaeological data. The site had been subjected to a number of alterations and artifacts found were of the lowest retentive priority. A number of problems relevant to archaeological investigation at such sites were elucidated.

Native made glass pendants have long been known in the upper Missouri region, but it is not generally realized these also have appeared east of the Mississippi River. The find sites and their dates are discussed and the context of the pendants where known. Indications are that the differences evident in the sizes and shapes of the pendants may be due to temporal factors. A previous estimate of 1798 for the time of the origin of the craft must be changed and evidence from the east suggests a beginning at least as early as 1730.

The existence of a new early tradition of polychrome painting (Caño del Oso) has been revealed through recent archaeological excavations in the western Venezuelan Llanos. This tradition seems to be much older than Tocuyano, which up to the present yielded the oldest absolute dates not only for Venezuela, but also for the Caribbean, Central America, and Mesoamerica. The chronological position of the Cano del Oso polychrome pottery, its characteristics, and the lack of stylistic relationships with Tocuyano, enabled the formulation of 2 hypotheses regarding the place of origin of the technique: Venezuela or Colombia. Likewise it permitted the assumption that within Venezuela, polychrome painting spread from one local group to another independently from other ceramic traits.

Sheffer's contention that I have skewed data to suit my purposes is denied. I suggest that it is, rather, he who misuses my data.

I explain my "failure" to familiarize myself with Carneiro's more recent attempts to arrive at "laws" of cultural evolution, and go on to critically evaluate his 1968 paper. I attempt to demonstrate that Carneiro's "law" is not applicable to cultural development in general, and that it is neither quantitative in application nor a law.

The criticisms raised by Donn T. Bayard against a proposed statistical law of culture are examined, and an attempt is made to refute them.