Type of Document	Dissertation
Author	Thulman, David Kelley
Author's Email Address	dkt7819@fsu.edu
URN	etd-10262006-103833
Title	A Reconstruction of Paleoindian Social Organization in North Central Flordia
Degree	PhD
Department	Anthropology, Department of
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title William Parkinson Committee Chair David Anderson Committee Member Frank Marlowe Committee Member Glen Doran Committee Member Joseph Donoghue Committee Member Rochelle Marinnan Committee Member
Keywords	paleoindian archaeology Florida typology projectile point Clovis territory statistics
Date of Defense	2006-10-20
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract This research reconstructs Paleoindian social organization using models that describe the manner in which people create and maintain variability and consistency in material culture and predicts the spatial and chronological patterning that should result from those behaviors. The research also develops a methodology that is designed to discern these spatial and chronological patterns and provides a sound basis for inferring the presence and configuration of social organization. The models and methodology are applied to data consisting of isolated Paleoindian points from north central Florida. The results demonstrate a clustering of similar point forms that are used to infer the presence of different social groups. The models propose that consistency in material culture is created through social learning processes that tend to focus group members on one or a limited number of cultural models. Variation is created through individual innovation and the variable abilities of the group members to make artifacts based on those models. It is these processes of learning and making that establishes regional differences in the design of material culture. Typologies based upon these regional differences can be used to infer the territories of the groups that share cultural models. The models predict that greater regional differentiation should be created through time and that the differentiation may only be present in relatively small differences in one or more attributes. In addition chronological effects, the degree of differentiation between groups should be more pronounced with distance. The data in my research consists of about 950 Paleoindian points collected from Florida. In order to ensure that I was measuring an unaltered cultural model, I limited the statistical analyses to the undamaged bases of the points that were unaffected by resharpening, which left 107 Early Paleoindian and 385 Middle Paleoindian points. Nine measurement attributes, nine ratio attributes, and three or four principal components were used in analysis of variance and Tukey-Kramer tests to discern significant regional differences. The analyses produced five significant results for the Early Paleoindian period and 122 significant results for the Middle Paleoindian period. The results comport with the models’ predictions. There was a significant increase in the number of differences through time, which can be interpreted as a “settling in” of Middle Paleoindian groups in the region. The differences were apparent in such attributes as the size of the ear, the degree to which it flared out from the base, or the length of the waist. Based on the spatial pattern of differences and similarities, it appears there were three territories in the Middle Paleoindian period centered in the Chipola River, Santa Fe River, and the Hillsborough region.
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