Thesis
Textiles and ethnic groupings on the Columbia Plateau
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2006
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/100956
Abstract
Textiles have been proven to be useful for distinguishing ethnic groups, and archaeological textiles are an understudied resource on the Columbia Plateau. Basketry, mats, and cordage from sites across the southern Plateau were studied for patterns indicative of ethnic groups through time, and subjected to phylogenetic analysis. Phylogenetic methods are borrowed from biology, and look for branching relationships of cultures through similarities and differences in cultural traits. Most of the Plateau sites have fairly even mixtures of the cordage twists, and many showed a link between cordage twist and cordage diameter. Multivariate analyses such as hierarchical clustering and correspondence analysis did not seem to group the sites in a meaningful manner. Changes in cordage twist in sites around Vantage, Washington, suggest a change in the ethnic group using the area around 2000 BP. New radiocarbon dates put the oldest directly dated textile on the Plateau, a twined tule mat or basket fragment, at 3101 BP and suggest a change in textile types around 1200 BP, which may be linked to subsistence changes or changes in housing related to the switch to the Winter Village pattern. Phylogenetic analyses showed a lack of phylogenetic signal, possibly due to the fragmentary nature of the data, and possibly to the importance of horizontal transmission on the Plateau.
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Details
- Title
- Textiles and ethnic groupings on the Columbia Plateau
- Creators
- Rhiannon Kathryn Held
- Contributors
- Timothy A. Kohler (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525380601842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis