Women's Household Production on the Northwest Coast: a Paleobotanical Analysis Using Starches

Katy Lee Leonard-Doll

doi:10.7273/000005292

This thesis presents the results of archaeobotanical analyses at three sites, Ozette, Meier, and Cathlapotle, on the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. The purpose of this analysis is to use archaeobotanical methodologies, emphasizing starch grain analysis, to address questions of women’s household production through a dialectic framework of gender and status. Women are often discussed in Pacific Northwest archeological research as undifferentiated household producers. However, their roles in household production likely varied based on the intersections of gender and status. This thesis reanalyzes the macrobotanical assemblage from Ozette to address the distribution of botanical remains using the framework of this gender-status dialectic. Reanalysis of the Ozette data demonstrates how botanical remains can be used to identify different activity areas within houses where women were likely producing plant-based resources. After establishing a methodology for starch grain extraction from archaeological tools, a similar framework was applied to Meier and Cathlapotle by conducting a starch analysis of ground stone tools. A variety of starch grains were observed in the 44 samples taken from groundstone tools including bowls, pestles, groundstones, mortars and net weights. The starch type with the most starch grains observed is tentatively identified as the culturally important wapato (Sagittaria latifolia). The distribution of these samples and tools at Meier suggests that women were processing plants in the central to southern portions or low-status areas of the house. Other groundstone tools associated with fishing and construction were located primarily in the northern or high-status area of the house. The Cathlapotle samples included two unique starch grain types in the highest-status area of House 1 indicating that women may have been processing plants not accessible to others at Cathlapotle. This analysis addresses women’s household production by demonstrating the differences in production activities that women were participating in within their households, and how status likely played a role in what and where plant resources were processed within these houses. Starch grain analysis is shown as a useful methodology for addressing challenging questions surrounding gender and production on the Northwest Coast. It is important to address these questions to gain a full picture of the political economies in the region during the precontact period.

Women's Household Production on the Northwest Coast: a Paleobotanical Analysis Using Starches

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