Rewriting Marpole: The Path to Cultural Complexity in the Gulf of Georgia

Abstract

vii ABSTRACT This book examines prehistoric culture change in the Gulf of Georgia region of the Northwest Coast of North America during the Locarno Beach (3500–1100 BP) and Marpole (2000–1100 BP) periods. The Marpole culture has traditionally been seen to possess all the traits associated with complex hunter-gatherers on the Northwest Coast (hereditary inequality, multifamily housing, storage-based economies, resource ownership, wealth accumulation, etc.), while the Locarno Beach culture has not. This research examined artifact and faunal assemblages, as well as data for art and mortuary architecture from a total of 164 Gulf of Georgia archaeological site components. Geographic location and ethnographic language distribution were also compared to the archaeological data. Analysis was undertaken using Integrative Distance Analysis (IDA), a new statistical methodology developed in the course of this research. Results indicated that Marpole culture was not a regional phenomenon but rather was much more spatially and temporally discrete than previously known.Artifactual assemblages identified as Marpole were restricted to the areas of the Fraser River, northern Gulf Islands, and portions ofVancouver Island, an area contiguous with both Mitchell’s (1971b) “Fraser River Fishermen” economic subarea and the ethnographic territory of the Downriver and Island Halkomelem peoples. In contrast, the geographic area of Mitchell’s (1971b) “Straits Reef-net Fishermen,” the ethnographic territory of the Straits Salish, showed no sign of Marpole culture but rather a presence of Late Locarno Beach culture.The pattern found in artifacts was replicated in the distribution of art and mortuary architecture variation, suggesting the cultural differences between Marpole and Late Locarno Beach cultures were real and not a statistical anomaly. The matching distribution of prehistoric cultural variability and the ethnographic pattern of language groups indicate a long-standing and stable cultural dynamic within the Gulf of Georgia. ...