Overview

Household Archaeology at Bridge River offers a unique contribution to the study of household archaeology, providing unprecedented insights into the history of a long-lived house in the Interior Pacific Northwest. With fifteen intact anthropogenic floors dating to pre-Colonial times, Bridge River’s Housepit 54 provides an extraordinary archaeological record—the first to allow researchers to adequately test for relationships between occupational variation and social change. The authors take a methodological approach that integrates the study of household spatial organization with consideration of archaeological formation processes. Repeating the same set of analyses for each floor, they examine stability from standpoints of occupation and abandonment cycles, structure and organization of activity areas, and variation in positioning of wealth-related items. This volume is an outstanding example of research undertaken through a collaborative partnership between scholars from the University of Montana and the community of the St’Át’imc Nation.  

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9781647690519

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Reviews

A significant contribution to analytical methods in household archaeology. There are relatively few studies that can examine changes in the use of a single house structure over this much time. The careful hypothesis-testing using traditional knowledge as a frame of reference makes this study a model for others in this field. --Amber Johnson, Truman State University The longevity and complexity of pithouse occupations at Bridge River--and potentially at other sites nearby--are profoundly interesting findings, and the balance evident in the Fraser River Valley between tendencies towards hierarchy/inequality and egalitarianism/communality is fascinating. These topics and sophisticated insights from this book are of great interest to global conversations in archaeology. --Christopher B. Rodning, Tulane University

"""A significant contribution to analytical methods in household archaeology. There are relatively few studies that can examine changes in the use of a single house structure over this much time. The careful hypothesis-testing using traditional knowledge as a frame of reference makes this study a model for others in this field."" --Amber Johnson, Truman State University ""The longevity and complexity of pithouse occupations at Bridge River--and potentially at other sites nearby--are profoundly interesting findings, and the balance evident in the Fraser River Valley between tendencies towards hierarchy/inequality and egalitarianism/communality is fascinating. These topics and sophisticated insights from this book are of great interest to global conversations in archaeology."" --Christopher B. Rodning, Tulane University"

""A significant contribution to analytical methods in household archaeology. There are relatively few studies that can examine changes in the use of a single house structure over this much time. The careful hypothesis-testing using traditional knowledge as a frame of reference makes this study a model for others in this field."" --Amber Johnson, Truman State University ""The longevity and complexity of pithouse occupations at Bridge River--and potentially at other sites nearby--are profoundly interesting findings, and the balance evident in the Fraser River Valley between tendencies towards hierarchy/inequality and egalitarianism/communality is fascinating. These topics and sophisticated insights from this book are of great interest to global conversations in archaeology."" --Christopher B. Rodning, Tulane University

Author Information

Anna Marie Prentiss is Regents Professor of Anthropology at the University of Montana. She is editor of The Last House at Bridge River and author of Field Seasons, and People of the Middle Fraser Canyon, and editor of Handbook of Evolutionary Research in Archaeology.

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