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Toward a Prehistory of the Na‐Dene, with a General Comment on Population Movements among Nomadic Hunters
Author(s) -
DUMOND D. E.
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1969.71.5.02a00050
Subject(s) - biological dispersal , prehistory , geography , population , archaeology , ethnology , history , anthropology , demography , sociology
C. E. Borden has hypothesized that ancestral speakers of Na‐Dene spread from Alaska to the Pacific Northwest by 5000 B.C. Based upon distributions of language and artifacts, two additional hypotheses are added here: (1) Once established from Alaska through British Columbia, Na‐Dene people provided the means for the spread of side‐notched projectile blades from the continental United States to Alaska before 4000 B.C. (2) After the Hypsithermal a further dispersal south and east from Alaska spread the specifically Athapaskan languages. It is further suggested that the spread of relatively nomadic hunters into country inhabited by their own linguistic and cultural relatives may be a regular and periodic occurrence.