Rethinking pinyon procurement in the ancient Great Basin: an ecological hypothesis

Abstract

Julian Steward believed that single-leaf pinyon pine (“pinyon pine” hereafter; Pinus monophylla) was the most important long-term plant resource for Great Basin Shoshoneans, wherever it occurred. Assuming that pinyon pine reproductive ecology was constant across the Great Basin, Steward set the stage for generations of anthropologists to universally assume that the unpredictable cycling rendered pinyon a notoriously erratic resource throughout the Intermountain West. And because pine nut harvests were unpredictable, this uncertain food source prevented Great Basin family clusters from participating in the settled village life typical of other hunter-gatherer “bands.” We question Steward’s uniformitarian assumption: What if boom-and-bust pinyon reproductive cycles were not universal and, instead, evolutionary processes generated significant regional variability in cone and seed procurement across the Great Basin? We argue that significant ecological differences separate pinyon pine woodlands between the western and central Great Basin and these differences carried major implications for pinyon procurement by people living there. We propose that regional ecological factors help account for the startling disparities in the archaeological distribution of pinyon processing facilities across the Great Basin.

Citation

Thomas, David H.; Millar, Constance I. 2023. Rethinking pinyon procurement in the ancient Great Basin: an ecological hypothesis. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology. 43(1): 59-82.