Islands on The Plains: Ecological, Social, and Ritual Use of Landscapes

Kornfeld, Marcel and Alan J. Osborn

ISBN 10: 0874807603 / ISBN 13: 9780874807608

Published by University of Utah Press, 2003

About this Item

2003. Natural History, North America. University of Utah Press. 331p., Near fine cloth and dust jacket. 8/25.

Seller Inventory # 136278

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Islands on The Plains: Ecological, Social, and Ritual Use of Landscapes
• Publisher: University of Utah Press
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0874807603
• ISBN 13: 9780874807608
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

Scattered throughout the Great Plains are many isolated areas of varying size and ecology, quite distinct from the surrounding grasslands. Such spaces can be uplands like the Black Hills, low hills like the Nebraska Sand Hills, or linear areas such as shallow river valleys and deeply incised canyons. While the notion of “islands” is not a new one among ecologists, its application in Plains archaeology is.

The contributors to this volume seek to illustrate the different ways that the spatial, structural, and temporal nature of islands conditioned the behavior and adaptation of past Plains peoples. This as a first step toward a more detailed analysis of habitat variation and its effects on Plains cultural dynamics and evolution. Although the emphasis is on ecology, several chapters also address social and ideological islands in the form of sacred sites and special hunting grounds.

About the Author

Marcel Kornfeld is a professor of anthropology and director of the George C. Frison Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Wyoming. He is the author of seven monographs, most recently On Shelter’s Ledge: Histories, Theories and Methods of Rockshelter Research, and coeditor of the forthcoming volume Hell Gap: A Stratified Paleoindian Campsite at the Edge of the Rockies.

Alan Osborn is associate professor in the department of sociology and anthropology at the University of Nebraska Omaha and curator of anthropology at the University of Nebraska State Museum.