Distribution of Refuse-Producing Activities at Hadza Residential Base Camps

Abstract

Recent research on prehistoric hunter-gatherer site structure continues to be concerned primarily with the identification of discrete, activity-specific areas within sites (e.g., Carr 1984; Hietala 1984; Flannery 1986). However, an increasingly large body of ethnoarchaeological data suggests that such areas may be rare in the archaeological record, especially among middle- and low-latitude foragers (Yellen 1977; O’Connell 1987). Here we present additional data pertinent to this topic, derived from recent fieldwork among the Hadza of northern Tanzania. Preliminary analysis indicates that although activity areas can be identified within Hadza base camps, the range of activities associated with each are broad and broadly similar from area to area. Assumptions commonly made by archaeologists about the differential distribution of activities are only weakly supported by our data.