North American Archaeology 2021 Midterm Project

Answer the following questions using information from course lectures/textbook.

1. What is a forager and what is a collector? What is the difference between a forager and a collector? (Be sure to discuss the use of two types of mobility in your response)

2. Name the three theories for routes of entry of the first Americans. Briefly (one to two sentences) describe each one and list one piece of evidence for or against each one.

3. Irrigation can provide lots of benefits to agriculture in desert environments. It can also have some drawbacks. List three issues or costs that could be related to irrigation systems.

4. What are four reasons hunter gatherers in the Southwest would have set fire to the landscape?

5. The relationship between humans and EAC plants is often described as a symbiotic one. What benefits did plants received in this symbiotic relationship?

6. What is a processor? What is a traveler? If your hunting and gathering group suddenly needed to support a larger number of people within a smaller territory that contained a wide range of abundant but labor intensive resources, which strategy would you choose and why?

7. What is a resistant tradition? Where in North America is a resistant tradition argued to exist and what were they resistant to?

8. What EAC plant(s) were both domesticated and a source of starchy seeds?

9. What factors go into calculating an overall resource return rate? Be sure to cover costs and benefits. What food had such a high resource return rate in the Great Basin that hunting nearly disappeared in times when this made up a large portion of the diet?

10. What are three reasons why a formerly mobile hunting and gathering group may choose to become sedentary?