Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xm8r8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-27T17:45:02.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Inequality on the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America measured by house-floor area and storage capacity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2020

Kenneth M. Ames  and
Colin Grier
Kenneth M. Ames
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Portland State University, USA
Colin Grier*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, USA
*
*Author for correspondence: ✉ cgrier@wsu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent large-scale comparative archaeological studies of wealth differences have used Gini coefficients to assess inequality, employing house-floor area as a standardised, cross-cultural proxy for wealth. Two such studies have found that storage capacity produces higher Gini coefficients than floor area, suggesting that the latter measures household wealth, while the former reflects anticipated income. Here, the authors test these relationships using the floor area and storage capacity of excavated houses on the Lower Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. The results, which reflect those from previous studies, support the cross-cultural nature of the pattern, and show that storage capacity reflects food-surplus deployment strategies rather than anticipated household income.

Keywords

Pacific NorthwestGini coefficientswealth inequalityfloor areastorage capacity
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 94 , Issue 376 , August 2020 , pp. 1042 - 1059
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ames, K.M. 1996. Life in the Big House: household labour and dwelling size on the Northwest Coast, in Coupland, G. & Banning, E.B. (ed.) People who lived in big houses: archaeological perspectives on large domestic structures: 131–50. Madison (WI): Prehistory Press.Google Scholar
Ames, K.M. 2006. Thinking about household archaeology on the Northwest Coast and elsewhere, in Sobel, E.A., Gahr, A.T. & Ames, K.M. (ed.) Household archaeology on the Northwest Coast (International Monographs in Prehistory, Archaeological Series 16): 16–36. New York & Oxford: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Ames, K.M. 2008. Slavery, household production and demography on the southern Northwest Coast: cables, tacking and ropewalks, in Cameron, C.M. (ed.) Invisible citizens: captives and their consequences: 138–58. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
Ames, K.M. 2010. On the evolution of the human capacity for inequality and/or egalitarianism, in Price, T.D. & Feinman, G.M. (ed.) Pathways to power: 15–44. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6300-0_2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ames, K.M. & Brown, T.J.. 2018. Radiocarbon dating the fur trade: Bayesian analyses of fur-trade era radiocarbon dates from the Lower Columbia River. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 23: 283–312. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-018-0466-1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ames, K.M. & Henry, K. (ed.). 2017a. Architecture, fire, and storage: Cathlapotle and Meier features (Wapato Valley Archaeological Project Report 9). Portland (OR): Portland State University & U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.Google Scholar
Ames, K.M. & Henry, K. 2017b. The fur-trade archaeology of the Cathlapotle and Meier sites, Lower Columbia River (Wapato Valley Archaeology Project Report 10). Portland (OR): Portland State University & U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.Google Scholar
Ames, K.M. & Henry, K. 2017c. Lithic technology, projectile points, osseous artifacts, and artifact classification of the Cathlapotle and Meier archaeological sites, Lower Columbia River (Wapato Valley Archaeology Project Report 11). Portland (OR): Portland State University & U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.Google Scholar
Ames, K.M. & Henry, K. 2017d. The zooarchaeology of the Cathlapotle and Meier archaeological sites, Lower Columbia River (Wapato Valley Archaeological Project Report 12). Portland (OR): Portland State University & U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.Google Scholar
Ames, K.M. & Henry, K. 2017e. Geoarchaeology and miscellaneous reports: Cathlapotle and Meier archaeological sites, Lower Columbia River (Wapato Valley Archaeology Project Report 13). Portland (OR): Portland State University & U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.Google Scholar
Ames, K.M. & Gardner-O'Kearny, W.. 2017. Postscript to ‘The zooarchaeology of the Cathlapotle and Meier archaeological sites, Lower Columbia River’, in Ames, K.M. & Henry, K. (ed.) The zooarchaeology of the Cathlapotle and Meier archaeological sites, Lower Columbia River (Wapato Valley Archaeological Project Report 12): 315–80. Portland (OR): Portland State University & U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.Google Scholar
Ames, K.M. & Shepard, E.E.. 2019. Building wooden houses: the political economy of plankhouse construction on the southern Northwest Coast of North America. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 53: 202–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2019.01.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ames, K.M., Smith, C.M. & Bourdeaux, A.. 2008. Large domestic pits on the Northwest Coast of North America. Journal of Field Archaeology 33: 3–18. https://doi.org/10.1179/009346908791071420CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archer, D.J.W. 2001. Village patterns and the emergence of rank in the Prince Rupert area, in Cybulski, J. (ed.) Perspectives in northern Northwest Coast prehistory: 203–22. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt22zmcv8.12CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Betzenhauser, A. 2018. Exploring measures of inequality in the Mississippian heartland, in Kohler, T.A. & Smith, M.E. (ed.) Ten thousand years of inequality: the archaeology of wealth differences: 180–200. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt20d8801.10Google Scholar
Bogaard, A., Styring, A., Whitlam, J., Fochesato, M. & Bowles, S.. 2018. Farming, inequality and urbanization: a comparative analysis of late prehistoric northern Mesopotamia and south-west Germany, in Kohler, T.A. & Smith, M. (ed.) Ten thousand years of inequality: the archaeology of wealth differences: 201–29. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt20d8801.11Google Scholar
Bogaard, A., Fochesato, M. & Bowles, S.. 2019. The farming-inequality nexus: new insights from ancient Western Eurasia. Antiquity 93: 1129–43. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2019.105CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowles, S., Smith, E.A. & Molder, M. Borderhoff. 2010. The emergence and persistence of inequality in premodern societies: introduction to the special section. Current Anthropology 51: 7–17. https://doi.org/10.1086/649206CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, S.T. 2017. The interpretation of indoor storage facilities from two plank house sites in the Greater Lower Columbia River region, in Ames, K.M. & Henry, K. (ed.) Architecture, fire, and storage: Cathlapotle and Meier features (Wapato Valley Archaeological Project Reports 9): 265–338. Portland (OR): Portland State University & U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.Google Scholar
Coupland, G. 1985. Household variability and status differentiation at Kitselas Canyon. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 9: 39–56.Google Scholar
Deininger, K. & Squire, L.. 1996. A new data set measuring income inequality. The World Bank Economic Review 10: 565–91. https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/10.3.565CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fochesato, M. & Bowles, S.. 2017. Technology, institutions, and wealth inequality over eleven millennia (SFI Working Paper 2017-08-032). Santa Fe (NM): Santa Fe Institute.Google Scholar
Fochesato, M., Bogaard, A. & Bowles, S.. 2019. Comparing ancient inequalities: the challenges of comparability, bias and precision. Antiquity 93: 853–69. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2019.106CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gahr, D.A.T. 2006. Architects to ancestors: the life cycle of plankhouses, in Sobel, E.A., Gahr, D.A.T. & Ames, K.M. (ed.) Household archaeology on the Northwest Coast (International Monographs in Prehistory, Archaeological Series 16): 56–70. New York & Oxford: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Grier, C. 2006. Political dimensions of monumental residences on the Northwest Coast of North America, in Christie, J.J. & Sarro, P.J. (ed.) Palaces and power in the Americas: from Peru to the Northwest Coast: 141–65. Austin: University of Texas Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grier, C. 2017. Expanding notions of hunter-gatherer diversity: identifying core organisational principles and practices in Coast Salish societies of the northwest coast of North America, in Finlayson, B. & Warren, G. (ed.) The diversity of hunter-gatherer pasts: 16–33. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Hajda, Y. 1994. Notes on Indian houses of the Wappato Valley. Northwest Anthropological Research Notes 28: 177–88.Google Scholar
Hayden, B. 1997. The pithouses of Keatley Creek. Fort Worth (TX): Harcourt Brace College.Google Scholar
Kohler, T.A. & Higgins, R.. 2016. Quantifying household inequality in early Pueblo villages. Current Anthropology 57: 690–97. https://doi.org/10.1086/687982CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohler, T.A. & Smith, M. (ed.). 2018. Ten thousand years of inequality: the archaeology of wealth differences. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt20d8801.11CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohler, T.A. et al. 2017. Greater post-Neolithic wealth disparities in Eurasia than in North America and Mesoamerica. Nature 551: 619–23. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24646CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohler, T.A. et al. 2018. Deep inequality: summary and conclusions, in Kohler, T.A. & Smith, M. (ed.) Ten thousand years of inequality: the archaeology of wealth differences: 289–318. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt20d8801Google Scholar
Levi-Strauss, C. 1983. The way of the masks. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
De Lucia, K. & Morehart, C.T.. 2015. Surplus and social change: the production of household and field in pre-Aztec central Mexico, in Morehart, C.T. & De Lucia, K. (ed.) Surplus: the politics of production and the strategies of everyday life : 73–96. Boulder: University of Colorado Press. https://doi.org/10.5876/9781607323808.c003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martindale, A., Letham, B., Supernant, K., Brown, T., Edinborough, K., Duelks, J. & Ames, K.M.. 2017. Urbanism in Northern Tsimshian archaeology. Hunter-Gatherer Research 3: 133–63. https://doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2017.8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattison, S.M., Smith, E.A., Shenk, M.K. & Cochrane, E.E.. 2016. The evolution of inequality. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 25: 184–99. https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21491CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Minor, R., Toepel, K.A. & Beckham, S.D.. 1989. An overview of investigations at 45SA11: archaeology in the Columbia Gorge (Heritage Research Associates Report 83). Eugene (OR): Heritage Research Associates.Google Scholar
Narroll, R. 1962. Floor area and settlement pattern. American Antiquity 27: 187–89. https://doi.org/10.2307/277689Google Scholar
Netting, R.M. 1982. Some home truths about household size and wealth. American Behavioral Scientist 25: 641–62. https://doi.org/10.1177/000276482025006004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, C.E. & Drennan, R.D.. 2018. Letting the Gini out of the bottle: measuring inequality archaeologically, in Kohler, T.A. & Smith, M.E. (ed.) Ten thousand years of inequality: the archaeology of wealth differences: 39–68. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt20d8801.5Google Scholar
Prentiss, A.M., Foor, T.A., Cross, G., Harris, L.E. & Wanzenried, M.. 2012. The cultural evolution of material wealth-based inequality at Bridge River, British Columbia. American Antiquity 77: 542–64. https://doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.77.3.542CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prentiss, A.M., Foor, T.A., Hampton, A., Ryan, E. & Walsh, M.J.. 2018a. The evolution of material wealth-based inequality: the record of housepit 54, Bridge River, British Columbia. American Antiquity 83: 598–618. https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2018.56CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prentiss, A.M., Foor, T.A. & Murphy, M.-M.. 2018b. Testing hypotheses about emergent inequality (using Gini coefficients) in a complex fisher-forager society at the Bridge River site, British Columbia, in Kohler, T.A. & Smith, M.E. (ed.) Ten thousand years of inequality: the archaeology of wealth differences: 96–129. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt20d8801.7Google Scholar
Puleston, C., Tuljapurkar, S. & Winterhalder, B.. 2014. The invisible cliff: abrupt imposition of Malthusian equilibrium in a natural-fertility, agrarian society. PLoS ONE 9(1): e87541. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087541CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, C.M. 2015. Use-wear, chaîne opératoire and labour organization among Pacific Northwest Coast sedentary foragers. Antiquity 89: 662–82. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2015.29CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M.E., Dennehy, T., Kamp-Whittaker, A., Colon, E. & Harkness, R.. 2014. Quantitative measures of wealth inequality in ancient central Mexican communities. Advances in Archaeological Practice 2: 311–23. https://doi.org/10.7183/2326-3768.2.4.XXCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sobel, E.A. 2017. Social complexity and corporate households on the southern Northwest Coast of North America, AD 1450–1855 (Wapato Valley Archaeological Project Reports 8). Portland (OR): Portland State University & U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.Google Scholar
Trigger, B.G. 2003. Understanding early civilizations: a comparative study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511840630CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winderhalder, B., Puleston, C. & Ross, C.. 2015. Production risk, inter-annual food storage by households and population-level consequences in seasonal prehistoric agrarian societies. Environmental Archaeology 20: 337–48. https://doi.org/10.1179/1749631415Y.0000000025CrossRefGoogle Scholar