A young student of anthropology receives an offer she can't refuse: the chance to live among the Pumé, a South American hunting-and-gathering people who call the tropical Venezuelan savannah home. During their time in the village of Doro Aná, the author and the principal researcher study a vanishing way of life in which cash money, the written word, automobiles, and airplanes are rare and frightening intrusions.
Adopted into a Pumé family, Yu's informal and personal accounts of events during her two year stay sparkle with descriptive flourishes and turns of phrase as she describes the daily cycles of birth, growth, romance, sickness, healing, and death among the villagers. Enlivened with the author's own illustrations, Yu's journal entries seek to present through a young American's eyes a sketch of her Pumé family, their heroic struggle to survive in a changing world, and the power and mystery of the Pumé way of life.
 "In Hungry Lightning we glimpse haunting fragments of life among the Pumé Indians. We find an intimate, deeply feminine--but ever-so-slightly jaded and strangely melancholic--voice savoring the tastes and smells of life lived in the Venezuelan savanna. A complexly sensual portrait."--Barbara Tedlock

Hungry Lightning: Notes of a Woman Anthropologist in Venezuela

Politics & Social Sciences

Yu, Pei-Lin

Anthropology

University of New Mexico Press

America’s western rivers are under assault from development, pollution, invasive species, and climate change. Returning these eco- systems to the time of European contact is often the stated goal for restoration efforts, yet neither the influence of indigenous societ- ies on rivers at the time of contact nor the deeper evolutionary relationships are yet understood by the scientific world. This volume presents a unique synthesis of scientific discoveries and traditional knowledge about the ecology of iconic river species in the American West. Building from a foundation in fisheries biology and life history data about key species, the book reveals ancient human relationships with those species and describes time-tested Native resource management techniques, drawing from the archaeological record and original ethnographic sources. It evaluates current research trends, summarizes the conceptual foundations for the cultural and evolutionary significance of sustainable use of fish, and seeks pathways for future research. Geographic areas described include the Columbia Plateau, Idaho’s Snake River Plain, the Sacramento River Delta, and the mid-Fraser River of British Columbia. Previously unpublished information is included with the express permission and approval of tribal communities. This approach broadens and deepens the available body of data and establishes a basis for future collaboration between scientists and Native stakeholders toward mutual goals of river ecosystem health. 

Rivers, Fish, and the People: Tradition, Science, and Historical Ecology of Fisheries in the American West

History

Americas

University of Utah Press

Household Archaeology at Bridge River offers a unique contribution to the study of household archaeology, providing unprecedented insights into the history of a long-lived house in the Interior Pacific Northwest. With fifteen intact anthropogenic floors dating to pre-Colonial times, Bridge River's Housepit 54 provides an extraordinary archaeological record-the first to allow researchers to adequately test for relationships between occupational variation and social change. The authors take a methodological approach that integrates the study of household spatial organization with consideration of archaeological formation processes. Repeating the same set of analyses for each floor, they examine stability from standpoints of occupation and abandonment cycles, structure and organization of activity areas, and variation in positioning of wealth-related items. This volume is an outstanding example of research undertaken through a collaborative partnership between scholars from the University of Montana and the community of the St'Át'imc Nation. &nbsp;

Household Archaeology at the Bridge River Site (EeRl4), British Columbia: Spatial Distributions of Features, Lithic Artifacts, and Faunal Remains on Fifteen Anthropogenic Floors from Housepit 54

Prentiss, Anna Marie

Hampton, Ashley

Ryan, Ethan

Bobolinski, Kathryn

Schmader, Matthew

Edwards, Alysha

The potential of ancient pit ovens to yield important information about the human past has been recognized only recently in the U.S. Ovens implicate cooking and diet as well as food procurement and construction of large, complex features. Such behaviors are directly referable to subsistence, mobility, and labor organization, which are central to the tempo and mode of evolutionary change in foraging societies. Most archaeological data about pit ovens are hidden in cultural resource management reports. These data are brought to light in this study's exploration of archaeological patterning framed by the ethnography of pit cooking and the people who do it. Students and professional archaeologists will benefit from the broad survey of an ancient cooking technique in the American Southwest and Pacific Northwest, and its utility for intensification research at the theoretical level. Heritage management specialists will value the study as a useful guide for data collection in the field, and a meaningful demonstration of the enduring value of publicly funded archaeological research.

Ancient Pit Cooking in the American Southwest and Pacific Northwest

Archaeology

VDM Verlag

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