Metric and non-metric techniques of analysis are used to study the interrelationships of the Haida, Kwakuitl, Nootka, and Coast Salish ethnic divisions of British Columbia. Both between and within group variation is considered based on crania in museum collections.

Ten samples of skeletal material, from the archaeological sites of Morrison’s Island, Allumette Island, Hind, Cole, Picton, Frontenac Island, Oconto, Riverside, Osceola, and Reigh, are described and examined with regard to cremation techniques, pathological conditions, dental characteristics and population affinities. Apparent breeding isolates as well as population similarities covering great distances complicate the pattern of population interrelationships.

This volume addresses the directions that studies of archaeological human remains have taken in a number of different countries, where attitudes range from widespread support to prohibition. Overlooked in many previous publications, this diversity in attitudes is examined through a variety of lenses, including academic origins, national identities, supporting institutions, archaeological context and globalization. The volume situates this diversity of attitudes by examining past and current tendencies in studies of archaeologically-retrieved human remains across a range of geopolitical settings. In a context where methodological approaches have been increasingly standardized in recent decades, the volume poses the question if this standardization has led to a convergence in approaches to archaeological human remains or if significant differences remain between practitioners in different countries. The volume also explores the future trajectories of the study of skeletal remains in the different jurisdictions under scrutiny.

Over 1,400 individual skeletons from three major skeletal populations were examined for a series of approximately fifty infracranial non-metric traits. Trait frequencies are studied for size, sex and age differences, trait intercorrelations, and association with bone robusticity. Skeletal population studies are performed using various combinations of the traits and two distance statistics.

Thirteen scientists provide insight into the archaeology of the north coast of British Columbia in celebration of fieldwork begun by George F. MacDonald for the National Museum of Canada in 1966. This book investigates paleoenvironmental influences on human settlement, theoretical concepts involved in northern Northwest Coast research, and the interplay of aboriginal oral traditions and archaeological findings.

Fifty-seven human skeletons, along with more than 200 artifacts and nearly 20,000 non-human bones, provide insight into mortuary practices, human biology, palaeopathology, and demography for the sixth through thirteenth centuries A.D. These findings are analysed in the context of 5,000 years of British Columbian coastal Native history.

Riverine Period Settlement and Land Use Pattern in the Priest Rapids Area, Central Washington, William S. Dancey Intergroup Ties and Exogamy Among Northern Coast Salish, Edwin J. Allen, Jr. Northwest Anthropological Conference 1975 Student Paper Competition Co-First—The Cephalic Index: The History of an Idea in Physical Anthropology, B. Raymond Druian Co-First—Harlan I. Smith, Boas, and the Salish: Unweaving Archaeological Hypotheses, Ellen W. Robinson Reflections on Acculturation Processes and Stages: A Reply to Deward E. Walker, Jr., Fred W. Voget On the Nonmigration of Hunting People, Grover S. Krantz James Swan and Makah Cosmology: A Clarification, Jay Miller The Pons Asinorum: A Case Study of the Smilerp Ritual at Pound-Laundry Etats Vinu, Leslie E. Wildesen and B. Raymond Druian Stones in the Pit: Scientific Archaeology in Elementary Schools, R.E. Ross and T.C. Hogg A Preliminary Annotated Bibliography of the Prehistoric Archaeology of Puget Sound and the San Juan Archipelago, Joan M. Robinson

A synthesis of biological relationships during the Woodland period of southern Ontario prehistory is presented. The database consists of a battery of discontinuous nonmetric cranial traits which is used to compute C.A.B. Smith’s Mean Measure of Divergence (MMD) between 17 large (N>20 crania) Woodland samples. The research design tests a series of hypotheses formulated from a review of previous skeletal and archaeological studies in the research area. The main strategy is to eliminate those factors potentially biased toward producing Type I or Type II statistical errors and emphasize the selection of an appropriate battery of traits to compare the samples, since inappropriate data would ruin attempts to estimate biological distance from the start.

Archaeological and ethnohistoric evidence is presented to conclude that the Arrow Lakes region of southeastern British Columbia has been an integrated part of the Columbia plateau for at least 3,300 years.

In this volume, archaeologists offer a new direction for burial research by expanding the models for mortuary analysis from a site-specific to a regional level. Contributors explore how regional mortuary approaches allow the introduction of new questions about peer polity interactions and regional alliances-extending traditional settlement system and exchange analyses. This volume features case studies examining mortuary sites as components of the archaeological landscape.