The Norton tradition

The interrelationships of component units of the Norton tradition-cultures known as Choris, Norton, and Ipiutak-are reexamined and the tradition, defi ned more than twenty years ago, is found to be a valid construct related to increased maritime proficiency on the American coasts of the Bering and Ch ukchi seas. Early continuities are discerned with southern Alaska, with the so-called Old Whaling culture, and with the Arctic Small Tool tradition (a s originally defined). Arguments for a straight-line development of prehist oric Eskimo culture are, however, concluded to be based on imposed assumpti ons rather than empiricism. The heterogeneity within the Norton tradition a nd the partial contemporaneity of the Old Bering Sea-Okvik culture of Asia, commonly assigned as first stage of the Thule or Northern Maritime traditi on, imply the absence of any single ancestor or unitary origin for the Nort on tradition and for later Eskimo culture.