Colin Grier
Biographic Data
| ID | 3618973 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Colin Grier |
| GIVEN NAMES | Colin |
| FAMILY NAME | Grier |
| SIGNATURE | GRIER C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Washington State University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 209 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The Archaeological Prospection of Plankhouse Villages on the Northwest Coast of North America
Pacific Northwest Coast sites are challenging for archaeological prospection, shell-rich soil matrices and perishable material culture complicate interpretations, Archaeo-geophysics can resolve subsurface plankhouse features, drone-based LiDAR can record villages and monitor climate-change induced erosion
The challenges of signal interpretation of burials in ground‐penetrating radar
The identification of unmarked graves and burials is one of most common applications of ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) in archaeology. Despite a high frequency of use and a long history of experimentation, there appears to be considerable variability on what indicates a burial in GPR data—likely a consequence of heterogeneity in geological contexts, age and in burial practices. Although general statements about uncertainty in GPR interpretation m…
Keystone Institutions of Democratic Governance Across Indigenous North America
Defining and examining democracy in non-Western contexts is a conceptual challenge. This is largely because scholars of contemporary political systems outside of anthropology can envision no alternative pathways other than Western expressions of democracy. Such thinking inhibits our understanding of past, and indeed future, democratic systems. In this paper, we argue that there is no such thing as a “democracy, ” but rather there are institutions…
Inequality on the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America measured by house-floor area and storage capacity
Recent large-scale comparative archaeological studies of wealth differences have used Gini coefficients to assess inequality, employing house-floor area as a standardised, cross-cultural proxy for wealth. Two such studies have found that storage capacity produces higher Gini coefficients than floor area, suggesting that the latter measures household wealth, while the former reflects anticipated income. Here, the authors test these relationships u…
Political Economy in the Archaeology of Emergent Complexity: A Synthesis of Bottom-Up and Top-Down Approaches
What can the theory of anarchism and its analytical possibilities do for us
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Roundtable
Beyond Affluent Foragers
Terraforming and monumentality in hunter-gatherer-fisher societies: Towards a conceptual and analytical framework
Terraforming and monumentality have been integral to the practices of many hunter-gatherer-fisher (HGF) societies around the world. Both mobile and sedentary HGFs were capable of producing large, planned mound complexes, expansive production and defensive features, and other types of landscape modifications. We present a framework for approaching these practices, in an attempt to break down lingering conceptual barriers in the way HGFs have been …
Terraforming and monumentality as long-term social practice in the Salish Sea region of the Northwest Coast of North America
The archaeological record of hunter-gatherer-fishers in the southern Gulf Islands of the Northwest Coast provides evidence of large-scale construction of shell mounds and ridges, houses and villages, production features, defensive earthworks and burial mounds and cairns. Landscapes were terraformed – meaning anthropogenically constructed, modified and maintained – in service of multiple ends. These practices had significant implications for the c…
Magnetic Gradient Survey of the Marpole Period Dionisio Point (DgRv-003) Plankhouse Village, Northwest Coast of North America
Architectural reconstructions of plankhouses are central to the study of household and community organization on the Northwest Coast of North America. However, the sample of substantially excavated houses is constrained by their size, stratigraphic complexity, and typically limited surface expression. We present the results of a magnetic gradiometry survey of the Dionisio Point site (DgRv-003) village, occupied ca. a.d. 500–700 on the coast of Br…
Beyond Affluent-foragers: Rethinking Hunter-gatherer Complexity
Continuity Amidst Change: Village Organization and Fishing Subsistence at the Dionisio Point Locality in Coastal Southern British Columbia
Shifts over time in faunal representation in Northwest Coast archaeological sites have been viewed as reflecting changes in economic organization and social complexity. We use fish faunal data from the Parry Lagoon Midden (site DgRv-006) in the Salish Sea region of coastal southwestern British Columbia, Canada, to evaluate the relationship between change in subsistence strategies and community organization. We describe and compare fish assemblage…
Characterizing crystalline volcanic rock (CVR) deposits from Galiano Island, B.C., Canada: Implications for lithic material procurement at the Dionisio Point locality
DNA analysis of ancient dogs of the Americas: Identifying possible founding haplotypes and reconstructing population histories
Evaluation of methods that subdue the effects of polymerase chain reaction inhibitors in the study of ancient and degraded DNA
On Villages, Quantification, and Appropriate Context: A Comment on “Social Zooarchaeology of a Northwest Coast House” by Paul A. Ewonus
Using ancient DNA identification and osteometric measures of archaeological Pacific salmon vertebrae for reconstructing salmon fisheries and site seasonality at Dionisio Point, British Columbia
Resource Control and the Development of Political Economies in Small-Scale Societies: Contrasting Prehistoric Southwestern Korea and the Coast Salish Region of Northwestern North America
The emergence of formalized leadership, institutionalized political hierarchies, and elite control over resources are key areas of study in relation to the emergence of complex societies. In this paper we consider these developments in two areas of the world: the Coast Salish region of the precontact Northwest Coast of North America and prehistoric southwestern Korea. On the Northwest Coast, increasing house size through time reflects an increasi…
Anarchism and the Archaeology of Anarchic Societies: Resistance to Centralization in the Coast Salish Region of the Pacific Northwest Coast
Throughout human history, people have lived in societies without formalized government. We argue that the theory of anarchism presents a productive framework for analyzing decentralized societies. Anarchism encompasses a broad array of interrelated principles for organizing societies without the centralization of authority. Moreover, its theory of history emphasizes an ongoing and active resistance to concentrations of power. We present an anarch…
Probing dietary change of the Kwädąy Dän Ts'ìnchį individual, an ancient glacier body from British Columbia: II. Deconvoluting whole skin and bone collagen δ13C values via carbon isotope analysis of i…
Potential for Agroforestry Adoption in Southern Africa: A comparative study of improved fallow and green manure adoption in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe
This paper summarizes the findings of three ex-ante studies, from Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia, that examined the potential for adoption of agroforestry technologies should they be extended to farmers. Ethnographic linear programme modelling of households in all three locations shows that the potential adoption of these technologies depends on household composition, farm size, and availability of draft power. Results show that both male and female…
Palaces and Power in the Americas: From Peru to the Northwest Coast
Introduction - Jessica Joyce Christie Part 1. Identification of Palaces 1. Looking for Moche Palaces in the Elite Residences of the Huacas of Moche Site - Claude Chapdelaine 2. Landscape of Power: A Network of Palaces in Middle Horizon Peru - William H. Isbell 3. Lords of the Great House: Pueblo Bonito as a Palace - Stephen H. Lekson Part 2. Palaces as Active Stage Sets of Political Ideology 4. Sacred and Profane Mountains of the Pasion: Contrast…
Anarchism and the Archaeology of Anarchic Societies: Resistance to Centralization in the Coast Salish Region of the Pacific Northwest Coast
Throughout human history, people have lived in societies without formalized government. We argue that the theory of anarchism presents a productive framework for analyzing decentralized societies. Anarchism encompasses a broad array of interrelated principles for organizing societies without the centralization of authority. Moreover, its theory of history emphasizes an ongoing and active resistance to concentrations of power. We present an anarch…
Political Economy in the Archaeology of Emergent Complexity: A Synthesis of Bottom-Up and Top-Down Approaches
Using ancient DNA identification and osteometric measures of archaeological Pacific salmon vertebrae for reconstructing salmon fisheries and site seasonality at Dionisio Point, British Columbia
DNA analysis of ancient dogs of the Americas: Identifying possible founding haplotypes and reconstructing population histories
Probing dietary change of the Kwädąy Dän Ts'ìnchį individual, an ancient glacier body from British Columbia: II. Deconvoluting whole skin and bone collagen δ13C values via carbon isotope analysis of i…
Resource Control and the Development of Political Economies in Small-Scale Societies: Contrasting Prehistoric Southwestern Korea and the Coast Salish Region of Northwestern North America
The emergence of formalized leadership, institutionalized political hierarchies, and elite control over resources are key areas of study in relation to the emergence of complex societies. In this paper we consider these developments in two areas of the world: the Coast Salish region of the precontact Northwest Coast of North America and prehistoric southwestern Korea. On the Northwest Coast, increasing house size through time reflects an increasi…
Inequality on the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America measured by house-floor area and storage capacity
Recent large-scale comparative archaeological studies of wealth differences have used Gini coefficients to assess inequality, employing house-floor area as a standardised, cross-cultural proxy for wealth. Two such studies have found that storage capacity produces higher Gini coefficients than floor area, suggesting that the latter measures household wealth, while the former reflects anticipated income. Here, the authors test these relationships u…
Keystone Institutions of Democratic Governance Across Indigenous North America
Defining and examining democracy in non-Western contexts is a conceptual challenge. This is largely because scholars of contemporary political systems outside of anthropology can envision no alternative pathways other than Western expressions of democracy. Such thinking inhibits our understanding of past, and indeed future, democratic systems. In this paper, we argue that there is no such thing as a “democracy, ” but rather there are institutions…
The challenges of signal interpretation of burials in ground‐penetrating radar
The identification of unmarked graves and burials is one of most common applications of ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) in archaeology. Despite a high frequency of use and a long history of experimentation, there appears to be considerable variability on what indicates a burial in GPR data—likely a consequence of heterogeneity in geological contexts, age and in burial practices. Although general statements about uncertainty in GPR interpretation m…
Roundtable
Continuity Amidst Change: Village Organization and Fishing Subsistence at the Dionisio Point Locality in Coastal Southern British Columbia
Shifts over time in faunal representation in Northwest Coast archaeological sites have been viewed as reflecting changes in economic organization and social complexity. We use fish faunal data from the Parry Lagoon Midden (site DgRv-006) in the Salish Sea region of coastal southwestern British Columbia, Canada, to evaluate the relationship between change in subsistence strategies and community organization. We describe and compare fish assemblage…
On Villages, Quantification, and Appropriate Context: A Comment on “Social Zooarchaeology of a Northwest Coast House” by Paul A. Ewonus
Palaces and Power in the Americas: From Peru to the Northwest Coast
Introduction - Jessica Joyce Christie Part 1. Identification of Palaces 1. Looking for Moche Palaces in the Elite Residences of the Huacas of Moche Site - Claude Chapdelaine 2. Landscape of Power: A Network of Palaces in Middle Horizon Peru - William H. Isbell 3. Lords of the Great House: Pueblo Bonito as a Palace - Stephen H. Lekson Part 2. Palaces as Active Stage Sets of Political Ideology 4. Sacred and Profane Mountains of the Pasion: Contrast…
Potential for Agroforestry Adoption in Southern Africa: A comparative study of improved fallow and green manure adoption in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe
This paper summarizes the findings of three ex-ante studies, from Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia, that examined the potential for adoption of agroforestry technologies should they be extended to farmers. Ethnographic linear programme modelling of households in all three locations shows that the potential adoption of these technologies depends on household composition, farm size, and availability of draft power. Results show that both male and female…
Probing dietary change of the Kwädąy Dän Ts'ìnchį individual, an ancient glacier body from British Columbia: II. Deconvoluting whole skin and bone collagen δ13C values via carbon isotope analysis of i…
On Villages, Quantification, and Appropriate Context: A Comment on “Social Zooarchaeology of a Northwest Coast House” by Paul A. Ewonus
Using ancient DNA identification and osteometric measures of archaeological Pacific salmon vertebrae for reconstructing salmon fisheries and site seasonality at Dionisio Point, British Columbia
Resource Control and the Development of Political Economies in Small-Scale Societies: Contrasting Prehistoric Southwestern Korea and the Coast Salish Region of Northwestern North America
The emergence of formalized leadership, institutionalized political hierarchies, and elite control over resources are key areas of study in relation to the emergence of complex societies. In this paper we consider these developments in two areas of the world: the Coast Salish region of the precontact Northwest Coast of North America and prehistoric southwestern Korea. On the Northwest Coast, increasing house size through time reflects an increasi…
Anarchism and the Archaeology of Anarchic Societies: Resistance to Centralization in the Coast Salish Region of the Pacific Northwest Coast
Throughout human history, people have lived in societies without formalized government. We argue that the theory of anarchism presents a productive framework for analyzing decentralized societies. Anarchism encompasses a broad array of interrelated principles for organizing societies without the centralization of authority. Moreover, its theory of history emphasizes an ongoing and active resistance to concentrations of power. We present an anarch…
Evaluation of methods that subdue the effects of polymerase chain reaction inhibitors in the study of ancient and degraded DNA
Characterizing crystalline volcanic rock (CVR) deposits from Galiano Island, B.C., Canada: Implications for lithic material procurement at the Dionisio Point locality
DNA analysis of ancient dogs of the Americas: Identifying possible founding haplotypes and reconstructing population histories
Beyond Affluent-foragers: Rethinking Hunter-gatherer Complexity
Continuity Amidst Change: Village Organization and Fishing Subsistence at the Dionisio Point Locality in Coastal Southern British Columbia
Shifts over time in faunal representation in Northwest Coast archaeological sites have been viewed as reflecting changes in economic organization and social complexity. We use fish faunal data from the Parry Lagoon Midden (site DgRv-006) in the Salish Sea region of coastal southwestern British Columbia, Canada, to evaluate the relationship between change in subsistence strategies and community organization. We describe and compare fish assemblage…
Beyond Affluent Foragers
Terraforming and monumentality in hunter-gatherer-fisher societies: Towards a conceptual and analytical framework
Terraforming and monumentality have been integral to the practices of many hunter-gatherer-fisher (HGF) societies around the world. Both mobile and sedentary HGFs were capable of producing large, planned mound complexes, expansive production and defensive features, and other types of landscape modifications. We present a framework for approaching these practices, in an attempt to break down lingering conceptual barriers in the way HGFs have been …
Terraforming and monumentality as long-term social practice in the Salish Sea region of the Northwest Coast of North America
The archaeological record of hunter-gatherer-fishers in the southern Gulf Islands of the Northwest Coast provides evidence of large-scale construction of shell mounds and ridges, houses and villages, production features, defensive earthworks and burial mounds and cairns. Landscapes were terraformed – meaning anthropogenically constructed, modified and maintained – in service of multiple ends. These practices had significant implications for the c…
Magnetic Gradient Survey of the Marpole Period Dionisio Point (DgRv-003) Plankhouse Village, Northwest Coast of North America
Architectural reconstructions of plankhouses are central to the study of household and community organization on the Northwest Coast of North America. However, the sample of substantially excavated houses is constrained by their size, stratigraphic complexity, and typically limited surface expression. We present the results of a magnetic gradiometry survey of the Dionisio Point site (DgRv-003) village, occupied ca. a.d. 500–700 on the coast of Br…
Roundtable
Political Economy in the Archaeology of Emergent Complexity: A Synthesis of Bottom-Up and Top-Down Approaches
What can the theory of anarchism and its analytical possibilities do for us
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Inequality on the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America measured by house-floor area and storage capacity
Recent large-scale comparative archaeological studies of wealth differences have used Gini coefficients to assess inequality, employing house-floor area as a standardised, cross-cultural proxy for wealth. Two such studies have found that storage capacity produces higher Gini coefficients than floor area, suggesting that the latter measures household wealth, while the former reflects anticipated income. Here, the authors test these relationships u…
Keystone Institutions of Democratic Governance Across Indigenous North America
Defining and examining democracy in non-Western contexts is a conceptual challenge. This is largely because scholars of contemporary political systems outside of anthropology can envision no alternative pathways other than Western expressions of democracy. Such thinking inhibits our understanding of past, and indeed future, democratic systems. In this paper, we argue that there is no such thing as a “democracy, ” but rather there are institutions…
The challenges of signal interpretation of burials in ground‐penetrating radar
The identification of unmarked graves and burials is one of most common applications of ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) in archaeology. Despite a high frequency of use and a long history of experimentation, there appears to be considerable variability on what indicates a burial in GPR data—likely a consequence of heterogeneity in geological contexts, age and in burial practices. Although general statements about uncertainty in GPR interpretation m…
The Archaeological Prospection of Plankhouse Villages on the Northwest Coast of North America
Pacific Northwest Coast sites are challenging for archaeological prospection, shell-rich soil matrices and perishable material culture complicate interpretations, Archaeo-geophysics can resolve subsurface plankhouse features, drone-based LiDAR can record villages and monitor climate-change induced erosion
Geography (14 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (11 works) · Archaeology (10 works) · Biology (8 works) · Ecology (7 works) · History (7 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies (5 works) · History (5 works) · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (5 works)