TY - JOUR
T1 - The Calusa and prehistoric subsistence in central and south Gulf Coast Florida
AU - Hutchinson, Dale L.
AU - Norr, Lynette
AU - Schober, Theresa
AU - Marquardt, William H.
AU - Walker, Karen J.
AU - Newsom, Lee A.
AU - Scarry, C. Margaret
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Paul Anderson, the Bokeelia Fish Company, and Robin Brown for collecting modern plant and animal samples. Bob Edic and Chuck Blanchard provided useful comments on the habits and habitats of south Florida animals and plants. The isotopic research was funded in part by grants from the National Science Foundation , NSF EAR 9617878 , NSF BCS 9707921 , Margaret Cullinan Wray Foundation , East Carolina University , and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences of the University of Florida . We thank Michael E. Moseley for comments on an earlier manuscript version. The current draft was improved by comments from Sophia Dent, the Archaeology of Food Working Group at UNC, and two anonymous reviewers. The maps were drawn by Susan Brannock-Gaul.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2016/3/1
Y1 - 2016/3/1
N2 - The south Florida Calusa are noted for their complex social organization coupled with their forager-fisher subsistence strategy. Social and political complexity have often been attributed to a reliable resource base, most frequently agricultural products such as maize ( Zea mays), and surplus stored foods. Recent reconsiderations of complexity for coastal populations, however, have questioned the stability of coastal resources citing ample evidence of periods of fluctuating instability. They have in turn emphasized the importance of other cultural mechanisms, such as resource exchange, in fulfilling subsistence needs during times of uncertainty.In this paper, we consider the complex food web of the central and south Florida Gulf Coast. We combine data on the zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical remains from the archaeological sites with those from stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios of archaeological human bone, and modern and archaeological plants and animals. These multiple lines of evidence confirm that marine-based protein and terrestrial C3 plants provided a large and reliable portion of the diet in southwestern Florida as early as 4000years ago and up to European contact.
AB - The south Florida Calusa are noted for their complex social organization coupled with their forager-fisher subsistence strategy. Social and political complexity have often been attributed to a reliable resource base, most frequently agricultural products such as maize ( Zea mays), and surplus stored foods. Recent reconsiderations of complexity for coastal populations, however, have questioned the stability of coastal resources citing ample evidence of periods of fluctuating instability. They have in turn emphasized the importance of other cultural mechanisms, such as resource exchange, in fulfilling subsistence needs during times of uncertainty.In this paper, we consider the complex food web of the central and south Florida Gulf Coast. We combine data on the zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical remains from the archaeological sites with those from stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios of archaeological human bone, and modern and archaeological plants and animals. These multiple lines of evidence confirm that marine-based protein and terrestrial C3 plants provided a large and reliable portion of the diet in southwestern Florida as early as 4000years ago and up to European contact.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jaa.2015.10.004
DO - 10.1016/j.jaa.2015.10.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84949845688
VL - 41
SP - 55
EP - 73
JO - Journal of Anthropological Archaeology
JF - Journal of Anthropological Archaeology
SN - 0278-4165
ER -