Spatial analysis on a dugong consumption site at Princess Charlotte Bay, North Queensland

Cribb, Roger; Minnegal, Monica

doi:10.1002/j.1834-4453.1989.tb00200.x

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This problem was overcome by attributing a fragmentation category (whole, large, medium, small; see above) to each bone attributable to an anatomical category, and to then calculate the proportion of diagnostic bones from each of the three major cranial bone‐groups (forward, middle and rear cranial regions) falling into each of the four fragmentation categories (Table 3). Other studies elsewhere in Australia have successfully used minimum number of elements (MNE) (Lyman, 1994, p. 290) to characterise dugong bone assemblages, but unlike this one these studies were focused on questions of subsistence rather than of internal mound structure or processes of accumulation, construction, fragmentation and ritual engagement (Minnegal, 1984a, p. 65 [NISP = 253], Minnegal, 1984b, p. 16 [NISP = 56]; Cribb & Minnegal, 1989, p. 2 [MNI = 3]).…”

Section: Dugong Bone Identification and Quantificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ritual dugong bone mounds of Koey Ngurtai, Torres Strait, Australia: Investigating their construction

Skelly

David

McNiven

et al. 2011

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The islands of Western Torres Strait, between Papua New Guinea and Australia, saw the emergence of ritual dugong bone mounds approximately 400 years ago. These mounds were used as a means to commune with, and as an aid for the hunting of, dugongs. This paper explores the bone contents of three dugong bone mounds on the small, uninhabited island of Koey Ngurtai as a means to determine their construction and in doing so to explore the historical emergence of ritual bone mounds associated with dugong hunting magicand thereby to historicise ethnographically known cultural practices-in Torres Strait.

show abstract

Section: Dugong Bone Identification and Quantificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ritual dugong bone mounds of Koey Ngurtai, Torres Strait, Australia: Investigating their construction

Skelly

David

McNiven

et al. 2011

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Studies of intrasite spatial patterning are important in archaeology because they contribute towards an understanding of spatial behaviour at the finest scale of resolutionactivity areas. Many intrasite studies infer that clusters of archaeological material represent foci of human activities (for example, Simek and Larick 1983, 167;Cribb & Minnegal 1989;Fontana 1998;Ranson 1978, Blankholm 1991. This is particularly evident in the archaeological studies of hunter-gatherer groups.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Starch and Charcoal: Useful Measures of Activity Areas in Archaeological Rockshelters

Balme

Beck

2002

Journal of Archaeological Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…That research concerned archaeological evidence for patterns of butchering and consumption of the large marine mammal Dugong dugon by people at Princess Charlotte Bay, on the east coast of Cape York Peninsula in Australia (Minnegal 1982(Minnegal , 1984aCribb & Minnegal 1989). The focus on butchering and consumption meant leaving to one side any questions to do with the people's decision to hunt dugong in the first place.…”

Section: Prologuementioning

confidence: 99%

Fishing at Gwaimasi: the interaction of social and ecological factors in influencing subsistence behaviour

Minnegal¹

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fishing at Gwaimasi: the interaction of social and ecological factors in influencing subsistence behaviourThis treatise describes fishing behaviour of people living at the village of Gwaimasi in the interior lowlands of Papua New Guinea. The concern is not with fishing as such but wdth the way in which social and ecological factors interact to influence behaviour. Iargue that an adequate explanation for behaviour must incorporate both dimensions, and suggest a conceptual basis for achieving this. The study then illustrates how at least one aspect of social organization, the size of resource-sharing groups, could be incorporated within a frame of analysis -evolutionary ecology -that has typically focussed on the explanatory significance of ecological factors.The primary thesis asserts that the probability of a particular pattern of behaviour being reproduced depends on both social and ecological factors. Variation in either domain can be expected to affect the kinds of behaviour observed, but the two domains do not affect behaviour in the same way. Ecological factors constrain production, the material outcome of action; social factors constrain consumption, the use that can be made of that outcome. The two domains are complementary, not contradictory, in their influence; in as much as production and consumption themselves are two facets of any action, ecology and society should be seen as mutually constitutive systems mediated by the actor.Evolutionary ecologists have tended to analyse constraints on production, particularly extrinsic constraints on production, in explaining behavioural variability.While constraints on consumption are not ignored, they are usually discussed only in terms of the intrinsic requirements of the actor. I argue that consumption, like production, is subject to extrinsic constraints; the use that an individual can make of a particular outcome of action may depend on the actions of others. In particular, where a resource has declining marginal value, the amount that is likely to be received from others will limit the amount that an individual can usefully procure; as a corollary, the iii expectation of having to distribute produce among others will increase the amount that can be usefully procured. In each case, the effect will depend on the size of the resourcesharijig group.These arguments are illustrated by analyses of the fishing behaviour of people atGwaimasi over a period of 57 weeks, Eariy chapters set the scene for those analyses, introduce the actors and position fishing within their broader subsistence arrangements.The community was small and isolated, the people hunter-horticulturalists using about 50km^ for subsistence. Skulls of neariy all fish caught within that area during the survey were purchased, and details recorded of fisher, technique, location and context of capture.In addition, records were kept of where individuals were based within the local area each day. Analyses of these data indicate that whether people chose to fish, as well as where and how they fish...

show abstract

Spatial analysis on a dugong consumption site at Princess Charlotte Bay, North Queensland

Cited by 4 publications

References 32 publications

The ritual dugong bone mounds of Koey Ngurtai, Torres Strait, Australia: Investigating their construction

The ritual dugong bone mounds of Koey Ngurtai, Torres Strait, Australia: Investigating their construction

Starch and Charcoal: Useful Measures of Activity Areas in Archaeological Rockshelters

Fishing at Gwaimasi: the interaction of social and ecological factors in influencing subsistence behaviour

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About