Donald H Holly
Biographic Data
| ID | 138199 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Donald H Holly |
| GIVEN NAMES | Donald H |
| FAMILY NAME | Holly |
| SIGNATURE | HOLLY D H |
| AFFILIATIONS | Eastern Illinois University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7604-8479 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 45 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Archaeology of Forgetting, the Dorset, and Arctic Antiquity
Forgetting, an attendant to culture change, is the stuff of history. When cultural innovations, exchange and adoption occur, previous customs, knowledge, technology and other dimensions of culture are often lost—they are forgotten. This paper considers the phenomenon of forgetting and its permutations—the passive forgetting that is more or less an accepted outcome of change, the unintentional forgetting that is accidental and undesired, and the i…
Scaling up and hunkering down: The evolution of Beothuk houses and households
We examine two concurrent trends in the later history of the Beothuk: changes to domestic architecture and household composition, and the narrowing of sharing obligations. The former is evident in the emergence and growth of pithouses and households, and the latter, in the partitioning of resources and the elaboration of food storage strategies. Both occur as European settlement and hostilities intensify and the Beothuk are denied access to coast…
Foraging in the Past: Archaeological Studies of Hunter-Gatherer Diversity (Ashley K. Lemke, editor)
Toward a Social Archaeology of Food for Hunters and Gatherers in Marginal Environments: A Case Study from the Eastern Subarctic of North America
The Stock Cove Site: A Large Dorset Seal-Hunting Encampment on the Coast of Southeastern Newfoundland
The Stock Cove site (CkAl-3) is a large, deeply stratified, multicomponent site located in southeastern Newfoundland. The richest strata at the site, which have yielded thousands of artifacts and multiple overlapping house features, provide evidence of a substantial Dorset presence. Earlier researchers proposed that the Stock Cove site additionally contained the Province’s only Dorset longhouse, which this paper disputes. The high frequency of se…
Bad Year Economics at Birchy Lake
Anthropologists have long been interested in understanding how societies cope with risk and uncertainty in their subsistence economies. The topic has been of particular interest to the study of hunters and gatherers, where risk and uncertainty are often conceptualized as problems of the natural rather than social environment. This paper focuses on an archaeological site located in the interior of the island of Newfoundland that was inhabited by A…
Talking to the Guy on the Airplane
There's a popular meme that my archaeology friends have been circulating on social media lately: a picture of Giorgio Tsoukalos, a producer of the popular History Channel show Ancient Aliens, overlaid with the caption 'I'm not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens.' The caption is a play on Tsoukalos's and others' claims that the archaeological and historical record contains ample evidence for alien visits to earth in antiquity. To wit, past ep…
History in the Making: The Archaeology of the Eastern Subarctic
The Eastern Subarctic has long been portrayed as a place without history. Challenging this perspective, History in the Making: The Archaeology of the Eastern Subarctic charts the complex and dynamic history of this little known archaeological region of North America. Along the way, the book explores the social processes through which native peoples “made” history in the past and archaeologists and anthropologists later wrote about it. As such, th…
Birds, Burials and Sacred Cosmology of the Indigenous Beothuk of Newfoundland, Canada
The Indigenous Beothuk of Newfoundland disappeared as a cultural entity in the early nineteenth century. Prior to this, the Beothuk had few direct interactions with Europeans, and those that occurred were generally of a hostile nature. As a result, very little is known about Beothuk religious life. Drawing on available ethnohistoric records, an analysis of burial site locations and funerary objects, we offer an interpretation of Beothuk sacred co…
Título não encontrado
Rethinking Eastern Subarctic History
If an area is perceived as marginal, it is often assumed that the history is too. Such has been the general assessment of the rocky and sparsely forested country of the eastern Subarctic. For a long time, scholars projected a rather dismal reading of this landscape into the past, with the effect that history was imagined as a struggle for survival, but otherwise uneventful. As a result, culture became adaptation and adaptation became history. It …
The Ties that Bind and Divide: Encounters with the Beothuk in Southeastern Newfoundland
Encounters between Europeans and the Beothuk in southeastern Newfoundland took a variety of forms in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century. There is evidence to suggest some trade, but also scavenging, theft, mutual hostility, and avoidance. By the middle of the seventeenth century, relations had deteriorated to the point that the Beothuk retreated from this area to points north and west. This paper examines the nature of Beothuk-European r…
Social Aspects and Implications of “Running to the Hills”: The Case of the Beothuk Indians of Newfoundland
When faced with the presence of hostile others on the landscape, hunter-gatherers may choose or be obliged to retreat to areas beyond the reach of their enemies—to run to the hills. Although sometimes successful, “running to the hills” often incurs additional risks and/or requires fundamental transformations of land-use patterns, subsistence strategies, and dimensions of social life. This article explores this strategy as it unfolded among the Be…
What's in a Coin? Reading the Material Culture of Legend Tripping and Other Activities
Several people accused of being vampires are buried in southern Rhode Island. Their legends are well known, and as a result some of the places where these people are buried are sites of considerable activity. Drawing primarily on material culture left behind by visitors, we attempt to identify activities that are taking place at these gravesites. Our observations suggest that vandalism, partying, legend tripping, tourism, and perhaps even magic a…
The Place of "Others" in Hunter-Gatherer Intensification
Archaeologists are interested in understanding the conditions under which hunter-gatherer intensification occurs. Typically, most models assign primacy to population pressure or social relations and address intensification as it occurs among foragers inhabiting arid or temperate environments. In this article, I explore episodes of resource intensification and "deintensification" on the subarctic island of Newfoundland. Correlating periods of reso…
A historiography of an ahistoricity: On the Beothuk Indians
The Beothuk Indians of Newfoundland have long been perceived as a cultural anachronism in the native history of northeastern North America. They appeared to represent cultural holdovers from some earlier age that had been preserved in a primitive state due to isolation on a cold North Atlantic isle. To many, their history seemed shallow, timeless even. Those that supported this position did so by drawing on four lines of evidence. They interprete…
Tales of Extinction
The Place of "Others" in Hunter-Gatherer Intensification
Archaeologists are interested in understanding the conditions under which hunter-gatherer intensification occurs. Typically, most models assign primacy to population pressure or social relations and address intensification as it occurs among foragers inhabiting arid or temperate environments. In this article, I explore episodes of resource intensification and "deintensification" on the subarctic island of Newfoundland. Correlating periods of reso…
Birds, Burials and Sacred Cosmology of the Indigenous Beothuk of Newfoundland, Canada
The Indigenous Beothuk of Newfoundland disappeared as a cultural entity in the early nineteenth century. Prior to this, the Beothuk had few direct interactions with Europeans, and those that occurred were generally of a hostile nature. As a result, very little is known about Beothuk religious life. Drawing on available ethnohistoric records, an analysis of burial site locations and funerary objects, we offer an interpretation of Beothuk sacred co…
Toward a Social Archaeology of Food for Hunters and Gatherers in Marginal Environments: A Case Study from the Eastern Subarctic of North America
Social Aspects and Implications of “Running to the Hills”: The Case of the Beothuk Indians of Newfoundland
When faced with the presence of hostile others on the landscape, hunter-gatherers may choose or be obliged to retreat to areas beyond the reach of their enemies—to run to the hills. Although sometimes successful, “running to the hills” often incurs additional risks and/or requires fundamental transformations of land-use patterns, subsistence strategies, and dimensions of social life. This article explores this strategy as it unfolded among the Be…
A historiography of an ahistoricity: On the Beothuk Indians
The Beothuk Indians of Newfoundland have long been perceived as a cultural anachronism in the native history of northeastern North America. They appeared to represent cultural holdovers from some earlier age that had been preserved in a primitive state due to isolation on a cold North Atlantic isle. To many, their history seemed shallow, timeless even. Those that supported this position did so by drawing on four lines of evidence. They interprete…
Bad Year Economics at Birchy Lake
Anthropologists have long been interested in understanding how societies cope with risk and uncertainty in their subsistence economies. The topic has been of particular interest to the study of hunters and gatherers, where risk and uncertainty are often conceptualized as problems of the natural rather than social environment. This paper focuses on an archaeological site located in the interior of the island of Newfoundland that was inhabited by A…
Talking to the Guy on the Airplane
There's a popular meme that my archaeology friends have been circulating on social media lately: a picture of Giorgio Tsoukalos, a producer of the popular History Channel show Ancient Aliens, overlaid with the caption 'I'm not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens.' The caption is a play on Tsoukalos's and others' claims that the archaeological and historical record contains ample evidence for alien visits to earth in antiquity. To wit, past ep…
Rethinking Eastern Subarctic History
If an area is perceived as marginal, it is often assumed that the history is too. Such has been the general assessment of the rocky and sparsely forested country of the eastern Subarctic. For a long time, scholars projected a rather dismal reading of this landscape into the past, with the effect that history was imagined as a struggle for survival, but otherwise uneventful. As a result, culture became adaptation and adaptation became history. It …
Tales of Extinction
A historiography of an ahistoricity: On the Beothuk Indians
The Beothuk Indians of Newfoundland have long been perceived as a cultural anachronism in the native history of northeastern North America. They appeared to represent cultural holdovers from some earlier age that had been preserved in a primitive state due to isolation on a cold North Atlantic isle. To many, their history seemed shallow, timeless even. Those that supported this position did so by drawing on four lines of evidence. They interprete…
The Place of "Others" in Hunter-Gatherer Intensification
Archaeologists are interested in understanding the conditions under which hunter-gatherer intensification occurs. Typically, most models assign primacy to population pressure or social relations and address intensification as it occurs among foragers inhabiting arid or temperate environments. In this article, I explore episodes of resource intensification and "deintensification" on the subarctic island of Newfoundland. Correlating periods of reso…
What's in a Coin? Reading the Material Culture of Legend Tripping and Other Activities
Several people accused of being vampires are buried in southern Rhode Island. Their legends are well known, and as a result some of the places where these people are buried are sites of considerable activity. Drawing primarily on material culture left behind by visitors, we attempt to identify activities that are taking place at these gravesites. Our observations suggest that vandalism, partying, legend tripping, tourism, and perhaps even magic a…
Social Aspects and Implications of “Running to the Hills”: The Case of the Beothuk Indians of Newfoundland
When faced with the presence of hostile others on the landscape, hunter-gatherers may choose or be obliged to retreat to areas beyond the reach of their enemies—to run to the hills. Although sometimes successful, “running to the hills” often incurs additional risks and/or requires fundamental transformations of land-use patterns, subsistence strategies, and dimensions of social life. This article explores this strategy as it unfolded among the Be…
The Ties that Bind and Divide: Encounters with the Beothuk in Southeastern Newfoundland
Encounters between Europeans and the Beothuk in southeastern Newfoundland took a variety of forms in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century. There is evidence to suggest some trade, but also scavenging, theft, mutual hostility, and avoidance. By the middle of the seventeenth century, relations had deteriorated to the point that the Beothuk retreated from this area to points north and west. This paper examines the nature of Beothuk-European r…
Rethinking Eastern Subarctic History
If an area is perceived as marginal, it is often assumed that the history is too. Such has been the general assessment of the rocky and sparsely forested country of the eastern Subarctic. For a long time, scholars projected a rather dismal reading of this landscape into the past, with the effect that history was imagined as a struggle for survival, but otherwise uneventful. As a result, culture became adaptation and adaptation became history. It …
History in the Making: The Archaeology of the Eastern Subarctic
The Eastern Subarctic has long been portrayed as a place without history. Challenging this perspective, History in the Making: The Archaeology of the Eastern Subarctic charts the complex and dynamic history of this little known archaeological region of North America. Along the way, the book explores the social processes through which native peoples “made” history in the past and archaeologists and anthropologists later wrote about it. As such, th…
Birds, Burials and Sacred Cosmology of the Indigenous Beothuk of Newfoundland, Canada
The Indigenous Beothuk of Newfoundland disappeared as a cultural entity in the early nineteenth century. Prior to this, the Beothuk had few direct interactions with Europeans, and those that occurred were generally of a hostile nature. As a result, very little is known about Beothuk religious life. Drawing on available ethnohistoric records, an analysis of burial site locations and funerary objects, we offer an interpretation of Beothuk sacred co…
Título não encontrado
Talking to the Guy on the Airplane
There's a popular meme that my archaeology friends have been circulating on social media lately: a picture of Giorgio Tsoukalos, a producer of the popular History Channel show Ancient Aliens, overlaid with the caption 'I'm not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens.' The caption is a play on Tsoukalos's and others' claims that the archaeological and historical record contains ample evidence for alien visits to earth in antiquity. To wit, past ep…
Bad Year Economics at Birchy Lake
Anthropologists have long been interested in understanding how societies cope with risk and uncertainty in their subsistence economies. The topic has been of particular interest to the study of hunters and gatherers, where risk and uncertainty are often conceptualized as problems of the natural rather than social environment. This paper focuses on an archaeological site located in the interior of the island of Newfoundland that was inhabited by A…
Toward a Social Archaeology of Food for Hunters and Gatherers in Marginal Environments: A Case Study from the Eastern Subarctic of North America
The Stock Cove Site: A Large Dorset Seal-Hunting Encampment on the Coast of Southeastern Newfoundland
The Stock Cove site (CkAl-3) is a large, deeply stratified, multicomponent site located in southeastern Newfoundland. The richest strata at the site, which have yielded thousands of artifacts and multiple overlapping house features, provide evidence of a substantial Dorset presence. Earlier researchers proposed that the Stock Cove site additionally contained the Province’s only Dorset longhouse, which this paper disputes. The high frequency of se…
Foraging in the Past: Archaeological Studies of Hunter-Gatherer Diversity (Ashley K. Lemke, editor)
Scaling up and hunkering down: The evolution of Beothuk houses and households
We examine two concurrent trends in the later history of the Beothuk: changes to domestic architecture and household composition, and the narrowing of sharing obligations. The former is evident in the emergence and growth of pithouses and households, and the latter, in the partitioning of resources and the elaboration of food storage strategies. Both occur as European settlement and hostilities intensify and the Beothuk are denied access to coast…
The Archaeology of Forgetting, the Dorset, and Arctic Antiquity
Forgetting, an attendant to culture change, is the stuff of history. When cultural innovations, exchange and adoption occur, previous customs, knowledge, technology and other dimensions of culture are often lost—they are forgotten. This paper considers the phenomenon of forgetting and its permutations—the passive forgetting that is more or less an accepted outcome of change, the unintentional forgetting that is accidental and undesired, and the i…
Archaeology (14 works) · History (13 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (11 works) · Geography (11 works) · Indigenous Studies and Ecology (9 works) · Ethnology (8 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Biology (5 works) · Ecology (5 works) · Law (5 works)