Foraging in the Past: Archaeological Studies of Hunter-Gatherer Diversity offers a valuable collection of chapters featuring ethnographic and archaeological analyses of hunter-gatherer lifeways from the Pleistocene to late Holocene and in every major continent of the globe. A brief foreword by Robert L. Kelly reflects on the staying power of processual concepts in the light of new analytical methods. The following chapters are loosely unified as contributions to the anthropological archaeology of hunting and gathering lifeways and, indeed, as a tribute to Kelly's inspirational 1995 book, The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways.
Ashley K. Lemke's introductory chapter frames this edited volume around two related claims: (1) the contributed studies show that hunter-gatherer lifeways in the past were far more diverse than traditionally assumed, and (2) ethnographic analogs are only useful as starting points for framing testable hypotheses about the past. Indeed, when constructed as theoretically rationalized relational analogies (sensu Alison Wylie, “The Reaction against Analogy,” Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory 8:63–111, 1985), ethnographic analogues can provide a springboard for the discovery of non-analogue pasts; that is, lifeways with no match in the ethnographic present. Although the novelty of these insights is debatable, the points are sound, and the collection delivers effectively on both with a wide range of robust case studies.
In Chapter 2, Raven Garvey explores differences in environment and cultural diversity—technology, subsistence, demography, and cultural transmission—of the ethnographically documented Yámana of Tierra del Fuego from southern South America and the Unangan of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. Despite broad environmental parallels, she reasonably concludes that ecological factors cannot effectively (as prime movers) explain the cultural differences between these two peoples, suggesting instead that differences in cultural transmission in the context of unique geographies and histories of environmental perturbation, population response, and social networks might in combination better explain the ethnographic differences. In Chapter 3, Lemke builds on a decade of research into the underwater archaeology of submerged caribou drive features beneath Lake Huron in North America's Great Lakes region; she shows how ethnographic insights can stimulate non-analogue interpretations of the past—here tied to inferred differences in the seasonality of drive hunting. Lemke provides an excellent example of how archaeological data can surprise us and stimulate unprecedented interpretations. Kurt Rademaker and Katherine Moore (Chapter 4) use new data to challenge long-standing understandings of early human colonization of highland South America, suggesting that the high-altitude Andes mountainous areas were settled simultaneously with adjacent areas at lower altitudes. The authors argue that initial settlement variability was driven not by altitude but by variability in local ecology.
Patrick Roberts, John C. Krigbaum, and Julia Lee-Thorp (Chapter 5) consider the comparative insights afforded by stable isotope analyses of hominin remains from rainforests in Africa and Asia. They argue for the consistent and diverse use of rainforest ecosystems by pre-bipedal hominins, Pleistocene foragers, and Holocene agriculturalists. As such, this chapter undermines long-established assumptions about rainforest avoidance by ancestral human species and groups; it also provides a useful overview of stable isotope analyses for the uninitiated.
In turn, Brian A. Stewart and Peter Mitchell (Chapter 6) provide a compelling analysis of highland South African archaeology, making use of insights from Lewis R. Binford's Constructing Frames of Reference: An Analytical Method for Archaeological Theory Building Using Ethnographic and Environmental Data Sets (2001) on the role of effective temperature on foraging adaptations. They find that foraging adaptations shifted toward aquatic resources in cold intervals like the Late Glacial Maximum and the Neoglacial period—again showing how ethnographically derived models (including those inspired by classic ethnographic studies of !Kung San foragers), can lead to non-analogue and nonstatic interpretations of the past.
Similarly, Keiko Kitagawa and colleagues (Chapter 7) use faunal evidence from Neanderthal and Aurignacian assemblages in the Central European Swabian Jura to challenge claims that anatomically modern humans were more sophisticated behaviorally than their Neanderthal predecessors. Using optimal foraging models, they show that foraging targets varied as expected with changes in climate and suggest that differences in hunting prowess are unsupported. Finally, in a sweeping reassessment of a previous synthesis, Steven L. Kuhn and Mary C. Stiner (Chapter 8) synthesize the latest archaeological evidence on the differences between Eurasian Middle Paleolithic and later Homo sapiens behavior. Noting real differences between hominin taxa, primarily Neanderthal and Homo sapiens, in their emphasis on animals versus plants, technological complexity, and use of ornamentation, they explain these differences using refined understandings of different average population density and derivative implications for optimal foraging, territoriality, and social networking. Their conclusions reinforce not only the claim of non-analogue pasts but also the argument that differences between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans were based in their demographic and ecological circumstances, not fundamentally different capacities.
In summary, Foraging in the Past is a thought-provoking book featuring a set of individually rewarding chapters held together as a forum on the diversity of past hunter-gatherer lifeways. Like many edited volumes originating from conference sessions, the chapters—of generally high quality and potential interest themselves—do not hang together cohesively as a collection. Yet they justify the unifying claims that the past was different and that ethnographic inspiration can facilitate interpretations of those unique pasts. Archaeological scholars, lecturers, and students should find the book's quality and diversity of contents rewarding.
