NORTH AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGIST, Vol. 9(2),1988 ADOPTION OF THE BOW IN PREHISTORIC NORTH AMERICA

Current ecologicalarchaeology,as often practiced, is too closed a system.The realization that introduced external factors may playa role in cultural changeas potently as localizedmechanismsdemands increasedattention to analytical boundaries and matters of scale.This article questions the utility and effectiveness of localizedadaptive explanations for large-scalehistorical processesand, as an illustration, considers the prehistoric distribution of the bow in North America from a continental perspective.Criteria used to determine the presence of the bowm the archaeologicalrecord are briefly reviewedand a north to south chronological . distribution·for the initial adoption of .thebow ispresented. In the popular stereotype, the bow and arrow is closely linked to the Native Americans, yet the archaeological evidence reveals a surprisingly shallow time depth for an implement that, in the historic period, was distributed from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego. The bow in North America presents an interesting problem for examining the cultural implications of the distribution of a technical innovation through tinle and space. Although. the bow has been the subject of extensive ethnographic . descriptions and technical studies (Mason, 1893; Pope~ 1923; Rogers, 1940; Hamilton, 1982), little effort has been made to evaluate its prehistoric development or cultural significance.'· The role of technology in culture change has long been a major concern of anthropology. Diverse considerations of this fundamentaliy human attribute have centered on the pivotal question of technology as stimulus and consequence (Childe, 1936; White, 1949; Boserup, 1965; Hayden, 1981).