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Fur Trade (fur + trade)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Life Sciences60%

Selected Abstracts

Isotopic tracking of prehistoric pinniped foraging and distribution along the central California coast: preliminary results

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 1 2002
R. K. Burton
Abstract Zooarchaeological data from Monterey Bay and the adjacent central California coast corroborate earlier observations from northern California and Oregon that Callorhinus ursinus (northern fur seal) was a much more common component in prehistoric marine mammal prey than its present pelagic distribution and foraging habits would predict. C. ursinus remains from mid-Holocene Monterey Bay occurrences are predominantly from female individuals, associated with an inshore piscifauna, and lack associated artifactual evidence for deep water exploitation. Taken together with evidence from Oregon, this suggests that mid-Holocene C. ursinus populations had different foraging, resting, and, arguably, reproductive behaviours than historically reported. Currently debated is whether the contrast between prehistoric and present patterns of pinniped species representation results from: 1) late Holocene prehistoric resource depression by aboriginal hunters, 2) depredations of the early historic fur trade, or 3) non-anthropogenic climatic or oceanographic change. The issue has thus far been addressed with presence or absence data on pinniped species and age/sex classes in dated contexts. While these are fundamental data, they cannot shed light on the nature of foraging behaviour of the species in question, a key dimension of the problem. This paper reports a pilot study utilizing stable isotope analysis aimed to elucidate prehistoric pinniped foraging patterns, specifically that of C. ursinus. Elements from six archaeological sites in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties were analysed for stable isotope compositions of carbon and nitrogen in bone collagen and compared to a latitudinally ordered modern dataset. Results for archaeological C. ursinus strongly suggest that prehistoric animals habitually foraged at lower latitudes than characterize the species today, supporting earlier claims of their year-round residency south of Alaska. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Loss of genetic diversity in sea otters (Enhydra lutris) associated with the fur trade of the 18th and 19th centuries

MOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 10 2002
Shawn Larson
Abstract Sea otter (Enhydra lutris) populations experienced widespread reduction and extirpation due to the fur trade of the 18th and 19th centuries. We examined genetic variation within four microsatellite markers and the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) d -loop in one prefur trade population and compared it to five modern populations to determine potential losses in genetic variation. While mtDNA sequence variability was low within both modern and extinct populations, analysis of microsatellite allelic data revealed that the prefur trade population had significantly more variation than all the extant sea otter populations. Reduced genetic variation may lead to inbreeding depression and we believe sea otter populations should be closely monitored for potential associated negative effects. [source]

The design and use of an agent-based model to simulate the 1918 influenza epidemic at Norway House, Manitoba

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY, Issue 3 2009
Connie Carpenter
Agent-based modeling provides a new approach to the study of virgin soil epidemics like the 1918 flu. In this bottom-up simulation approach, a landscape can be created and populated with a heterogeneous group of agents who move and interact in ways that more closely resemble human behavior than is usually seen in other modeling techniques. In this project, an agent-based model was constructed to simulate the spread of the 1918 influenza pandemic through the Norway House community in Manitoba, Canada. Archival, ethnographic, epidemiological, and biological information were used to aid in designing the structure of the model and to estimate values for model parameters. During the epidemic, Norway House was a Hudson's Bay Company post and a Swampy Cree-Métis settlement with an economy based on hunting, fishing, and the fur trade. The community followed a traditional, seasonal travel pattern of summer aggregation and winter dispersal. The model was used to examine how seasonal community structures and associated population movement patterns may have influenced disease transmission and epidemic spread. Simulations of the model clearly demonstrate that human behavior can significantly influence epidemic outcomes. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

,ALMOST TRUE': PETER RINDISBACHER'S EARLY IMAGES OF RUPERT'S LAND, 1821,26

ART HISTORY, Issue 3 2009
LAURA PEERS
This article examines early watercolours and sketches by Peter Rindisbacher, who in 1821, emigrated with his family from Switzerland to the Red River Settlement in Winnipeg, Canada. Rindisbacher's work has been praised, and made use of, for its detailed renderings of clothing and objects typical of the Northwestern fur trade. The article examines both the materiality of the images and the materiality within them, in order to understand his European mindset and training and consider their implications for the veracity of his work, which reflects European stereotypes of Aboriginal people. Viewers' responses to Rindisbacher's images are also explored, and the correlation between the assumption of veracity in these images and expectations about the ,frontier' is noted. Rindisbacher's images both reflect such expectations, and complicate them. [source]