- 1 - 107 - 02250 - 8 - The Foragers of Point Hope : The Biology and Archaeology of Humans on the Edge

The ability to make a living in the Arctic represents one of humanity’s truly exceptional achievements. The fact that it was accomplished by people who depended exclusively on wild (that is, uncultivated) resources attests to the levels of human imagination and ingenuity in creating cultural systems that effectively buffered against the physical elements of the Arctic. For these reasons, studies of North American Arctic foraging peoples have long played an important role in the early foundations and development of American anthropology (Collins, 1984; Dumond, 1987; Burch, 1988). North American Arctic foragers represent one end of the range of variation of the human foraging spectrum (Bettinger, 1991; Kelly, 1995; Binford, 2001), but, as they exist at one end of that range, they especially present insight into human adaptability. Arctic peoples clearly push the boundaries of human adaptation and resiliency by living in areas marked by long periods of cold temperatures, limited availability of plant resources for food, and marked seasonal variation in daylight hours. North American Arctic foragers, both today and in the past, present a broad range of sophisticated technology, dietary flexibility, social organization, and residential mobility as they expanded across large areas of the North American Arctic landscapes. Given this remarkable resiliency in the face of adverse conditions, researchers have examined numerous aspects of cultural and biological characteristics of North American Arctic foragers in order to understand the complex problems related to survival in these circumpolar environments, and the many solutions taken by humans to overcome them. As separate cultural entities, Arctic forager groups often possess distinctive organizational strategies and technological skills that provide an impressive array of innovative solutions for survival in their circumpolar landscapes