Abstract

The Coast Salish cultural pattern is viewed as a specialized hunting and gathering adaptation which has evolved out of a more generalized format. Accepting the interface between the Locarno Beach and Marpole culture types (circa 400 B.C.) as the transition point, it is difficult to recognize either the stimulus behind such a development or the mechanism by which it occurred. It is maintained that the Hope/Yale region of the Fraser Canyon is a locale better suited, in an ecological sense, for the generalized to specialized transformation. It is also suggested that immigration or full population movement from that area to the Fraser delta formed the basis for subsequent developments.