Fred on The Virtues of Not Working

((^+^)) SG said:
Entertaining . . . but Fred doesn't know squat about primative cultures.  As a serious student of archaeology, his romantic and naive notions about how primative cultures work kinda ruined it for me.   :)

Just a question- aren't the Southwestern tribes you study Neolithic cultures rather than true pre-agricultural Paleolithic groups like he is (broadly) characterizing?

Ha
 
HaHa said:
Just a question- aren't the Southwestern tribes you study Neolithic cultures rather than true pre-agricultural Paleolithic groups like he is (broadly) characterizing?

Ha
First, I study more than only Southwestern cultural groups.  And second, No.   :)

The pre-history of the Southwest begins with the paleo-Indian tradition (say about 10,000 BC to ~5,000 BC) which is a hunter gatherer culture.  These people followed big game and gathered the dessert.  After the large mammals disappeared (due to major climatic changes), an Archaic tradition (~5,000 BC to ~100 AD) developed which was also hunter-gatherer but dependent on smaller game rather than mammoths.  Formative cultures began to develop in the Southwest around 0 to 200 AD with the widespread exploitation of agriculture.  Once agriculture took hold, ceramic traditions, textiles, architecture, etc. became common.

The story is surprisingly similar over most parts of the world with only the absolute timeline changing.  The bow and arrow was not introduced into North America till about 500 AD -- well into the formative period.  Prior to that the atlatl (spear thrower) was the weapon of choice.

Hey, I liked the sentiment of his article.  He just hasn't characterized any primitive cultural group I know about.   :D
 
Yep

Fred's a lot more colorful, recent, and brief than Edna, my 1963 Cultural Anthro prof at the U of W.
 
Fred's brilliant. And, he's been doing as he pleases for years and years. Living in Mexico, writing columns with a curmudgeon's slant; who'd athunk it?
 
Back
Top Bottom