We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Driving Bison and Blackfoot Science.
- Authors
Barsh, Russel Lawrence; Marlor, Chantelle
- Abstract
Archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence of "buffalo jumping" is concentrated in Blackfoot (Nitsitapi) territory. Although the "hardware" of buffalo jumps has been documented extensively, little is known of the "software," in particular the skills required to drive stampeding herds of bison over long distances to the deadfall, on foot, and often for days. The origins and nature of bison driving knowledge is explored on the basis of ethnohistory as well as Blackfoot chronicles, philosophy, and linguistics, and compared with the findings of recent field studies on the relationships between bison and wolves in the northern Great Plains. Blackfoot explanations of bison driving as knowledge learned from wolves are entirely plausible, and shed light on Blackfoot ecological methodology, as well as the development of human-canid hunting relationships generally.
- Subjects
GREAT Plains; BUFFALO jump; BISON; WOLVES; ETHNOHISTORY; ECOLOGY
- Publication
Human Ecology: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2003, Vol 31, Issue 4, p571
- ISSN
0300-7839
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1023/B:HUEC.0000005514.93842.91