Nancy M. Williams - Resource Managers: North American And Australian Hunter-Gatherers

Edited by Nancy M . Williams and Eugene S . Hunn

First published 1982 by Westview Press

Published 2019 by Routledge
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Copyright 1982 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Resource managers.
(AAAS selected symposium; 67)
"Based on a symposium which was held at the 1980 AAAS national annual meeting in San Francisco, California, January 3-8... sponsored by AAAS Section H (Anthropology)."
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: Introduction / Eugene S. Hunn, Nancy M. Williams--Mobility as a factor limiting resource use in the Columbia Plateau of North America / Eugene S. Hunn--Fire technology and resource management in aboriginal North America and Australia / Henry T. Lewis--(etc.)
1. Hunting and gathering societies--Congresses. 2. Indians of North America--Economic conditions--Congresses. 3. Australian aborigines--Economic conditions--Congresses. I. Williams, Nancy M. II. Hunn, Eugene S. III. American Association for the Advancement of Science. Section H (Anthropology). IV. Series.
GN388.R47 306'.3 81-15992
AACR2

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-28581-4 (hbk)

As environmental management becomes of increasing concern to both industrial and developing societies, it is instructive to look at the fundamental relationship between man and environment as exemplified by the hunter-gatherer cultures, in which resource management was and is vital to the very existence of human life. The authors of this book look at hunting and gathering societies in Australia and North America, searching for the essential, as distinct from local, manifestations of human-environment relations. They examine the availability of resources in relation to the requirements of stable and expanding human populations, explore the ontological and structural principles of ecological relations in these societies, and describe the rationale of geographic boundaries and control of access to resources within and across boundaries. A number of current theoretical issues are addressed: the use of fire as a tool for environmental management; the ecological consequences of seasonal mobility patterns; the functional basis for differing forms of control over resources; the social organization of production, including the symbolism of the sexual division of labor; the tactical exercise of jural rights in the use of resources; and the ecological consequences of religious beliefs. The book concludes with a summary of the case materials in terms of what they contribute to the understanding of hunting/gathering as an "economic" category and to the conflict over management of natural resources where societies of hunter-gatherers are encapsulated within industrial societies.

The AAAS Selected Symposia Series was begun in 1977 to provide a means for more permanently recording and more widely disseminating some of the valuable material which is discussed at the AAAS Annual National Meetings. The volumes in this Series are based on symposia held at the Meetings which address topics of current and continuing significance, both within and among the sciences, and in the areas in which science and technology impact on public policy. The Series format is designed to provide for rapid dissemination of information, so the papers are not typeset but are reproduced directly from the camera-copy submitted by the authors. The papers are organized and edited by the symposium arrangers who then become the editors of the various volumes. Most papers published in this Series are original contributions which have not been previously published, although in some cases additional papers from other sources have been added by an editor to provide a more comprehensive view of a particular topic. Symposia may be reports of new research or reviews of established work, particularly work of an interdisciplinary nature, since the AAAS Annual Meetings typically embrace the full range of the sciences and their societal implications.

WILLIAM D. CAREY
Executive Officer
American Association for
the Advancement of Science

Nancy M. Williams, a social anthropologist, is research consultant in Aboriginal man-land relationships at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, Australia. Her research has been on hunter-gathering societies, principally in Australia, and on local organization and social control. Currently she is working on three books, Yolngu Land: Principles of a System of Land Tenure, Two Laws: Managing Disputes in an Aboriginal Community, and Yolngu Political Organization.

Eugene S. Hunn, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Washington, has specialized in ethnobiology, cognitive anthropology, cultural ecology, and Native American societies. He is the author of Tzeltal Folk Zoology: The Classification of Discontinuities in Nature (Academic, 1977) and is a member of the editorial board of The Journal of Ethnobiology.

Catherine S. Fowler is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Nevada, Reno. She has done field research in the North American Great Basin, with an emphasis on the ethnology, ethnobiology, ethnohistory, and ethnolinguistias of societies in that area.

Jane C. Goodale, a cultural anthropologist with a special interest in Australia and Melanesia, is a professor of anthropology at Bryn Mawr College. She is the author of Tiwi Wives: A Study of the Women of Melville Island, North Australia (University of Washington Press, 1971) and of numerous articles on Tiwi and Kaulong cultures.

Richard A. Gould, a specialist in ethnoarahaeology, is a professor of anthropology at Brawn University. He is the author of Living Archaeology (Cambridge University Press, 1980), Yiwara: Foragers of the Australian Desert (Soribners, 1969), and of many articles on Australian Aborigines and North American Indians.

Annette Hamilton is a senior lecturer in the School of Behavioral Sciences at Maaquarie University, Australia. She has done field research on hunter-gatherer societies in Australia, with emphasis on the position of women and the socialization of children. She is the author of Nature and Nurture: Child-Rearing in North-Central Arnhem Land (Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1980) and of articles on women and economies, ritual, and land ownership in central Australia.