SUBSISTENCE, SEX, AND CULTURAL TRANSMISSION IN FOLSOM CULTURE

Archaeological and ethnographic data, as well as evolutionary theory, facilitate the understanding of key aspects of forager behavior in the northern Plains of North America during the Folsom period (10,900-10, 200 B.P.). Some of these behavioral adaptations include: (1) given low and dispersed Folsom populations, foragers used high mobility to loca te mates and maintain kinship, economic, and social networks; (2) beca use the hunting of bison was the optimal subsistence choice, Folsom gr oups were likely characterized by a disproportionate male contribution to the diet and, thus, a male-biased juvenile sex-ratio; and (3) give n the relatively uniform nature of the Folsom tool kit across the Plai ns, a many-to-one (slow), concerted model of cultural transmission may have operated. (C) 1998 Academic Press.