TRANSPORTATION INNOVATION AND SOCIAL COMPLEXITY AMONG MARITIME HUNTER-GATHERER SOCIETIES

Advanced watercraft were in use at historic contact among a number of the most complex hunting-gathering societies of western North America, including the Chumash and the Nootkans. Though anthropologists often relegate technological innovations to very minor roles as stimuli towa rd social evolution and power inequities, archaeological analyses of l ong-term cultural change cannot afford to ignore the many social, symb olic, and practical implications of major innovations in transportatio n. Analysis of the linkages between watercraft and political, ideologi cal, and economic systems reveals a strong association between social complexity and transportation of high capacity and range among maritim e peoples.