Abstract

Despite similarities in the range of exploitable resources and associated technological capacities, the indigenous peoples of the northeast and northwest coasts of North America had markedly divergent paths in a cultural evolutionary perspective. It is argued that such a differential development is related to varied intensities of specialization on the salmon resource and basic differences in the anadromy of species within this resource. The Pacific salmon, due to its once-only spawning cycle, has been described as producing extreme periods of both scarcity and abundance. Procurement and preservation strategies require large scale cooperation, regularized labour organization and some formalized mechanism for intra group redistribution. These traits are suggested to be the foundation stones for the ethnographic northwest coast cultural pattern. The Atlantic salmon, on the other hand, is available throughout the warm weather period thus providing a steady state resource. Seasonal scheduling to exploit this species is integrated into a generalized subsistence strategy whereby several resources can be procured simultaneously. Subsistence pursuits are best carried out by small, mobile groups of egalitarian hunters and gatherers.