Betts - Blair - Black - 2012 Perspectivism, Mortuary Symbolism, and Human-Shark

PERSPECTIVISM, MORTUARY SYMBOLISM, AND HUMAN-SHARK RELATIONSHIPS ON THE MARITIME PENINSULA
Matthew W. Betts, Susan E. Blair, and David W. Black
Delivered by http://saa.metapress.com Society for American Archaeology - American Antiquity access (392-89-746) IP Address: 204.19.14.51 Wednesday, October 31, 2012 2:10:13 PM
Shark teeth are commonly found in mortuary and ritual contexts throughout the Northeast. On the Maritime Peninsula, shark teeth have been identified in mortuary assemblages spanning the Late Archaic through to the Late Woodland periods (ca. 5000 B.P. to 950 B.P.). Beyond the Maritime Peninsula, shark teeth have been recovered from Woodland period contexts ranging from Chesapeake Bay to the Ohio River. Amerindian perspectivism, or cosmological deixis, provides a framework for understanding the relationship between humans and animals in hunter-gatherer societies. To explore this relationship, we examine engagements between sharks and humans over a period of 5,000 years, within a socioeconomic perspective. We postulate that shark teeth in mortuary contexts were complex, entangled objects that were both mnemonics and instruments. All at the same time, shark teeth were (1) an emblem of a real creature with spectacular predatory abilities, (2) an icon of transformational and spiritual power, (3) a symbol of a societys maritime way of life, and (4) a toola conduit through which a person could gain access to supernatural abilities. When shark teeth were exchanged, all of these properties may have been transferred, suggesting that reinforcing relationships between societies conducting the exchange was as important as gaining access to the supernatural powers of the teeth.
Matthew W. Betts Archaeology and History Division, Canadian Museum of Civilization, 100 Laurier St. Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, K1A OM8 (Matthew.Betts@Civilization.ca). David W. Black Department of Anthropology, University of New Brunswick, P.O. Box 4400, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada E3B 5A3 (dwblack@unb.ca) Susan E. Blair Department of Anthropology, University of New Brunswick, P.O. Box 4400, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada E3B 5A3 (sblair@unb.ca) American Antiquity 77(4), 2012, pp. 621645 Copyright 2012 by the Society for American Archaeology
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nimal remains and effigies are frequently found in prehistoric mortuary contexts in northeastern North America, spanning the Late Archaic (50003800 B.P.) through the Late Woodland (1500500 B.P.) periods. The meaning of these animal remains has received little archaeological scrutiny. Where they have been specifically addressed, the analysis has tended to
Les dents de requin sont couramment trouves dans des contextes funraires et rituels partout dans la rgion du Nord-est. Sur la pninsule maritime, les dents de requin ont t identifies parmi des assemblages funraires datant de lArchaque rcent au Sylvicole tardif (ca. 4500 BP 950 BP). Ailleurs que sur la pninsule maritime, les dents de requins ont t rcupres sur des sites du Sylvicole partir de la baie de Chesapeake jusqu la rivire Ohio. Le perspectivisme amrindien ou, la deixis cosmologique, fournit un cadre danalyse pour la comprhension de la relation entre les humains et les animaux dans les socits chasseurs-cueilleurs. Nous avons cet effet emprunt une perspective socio-conomique pour examiner les modalits dinteraction entre les requins et les humains sur une priode de 3000 ans. Nous postulons que les dents de requin trouves en contexte funraire sont des objets complexes et enchevtrs qui constituent la fois des mnmoniques et des instruments, qui revtent plusieurs sens et qui servent plusieurs fins: (1) emblme dun animal rel, dun prdateur hors du commun dot dhabilets spectaculaires ; (2) icne du pouvoir spirituel et du pouvoir transformationnel ; (3) symbole dune socit adapte un mode de vie maritime ; et, (4) outil redoutable un canal travers lequel une personne peut accder aux habilets surnaturelles. Il semble que toutes ces proprits auraient t transfres chaque instance de troc ou dchange de dents de requin. Ceci suggre quil tait tout aussi important de renforcer les liens conomiques entre les socits que daccder aux pouvoirs surnaturels des dents.
be structural in nature (e.g., Greber and Ruhl 2000; Holt 1996; see also Kelly 1993, in Holt 1996), an approach that has been critiqued for focusing on anomaly and metaphor and rejecting history and context (Wilkie and Inglis 2007:1827). Recently, however, significant advancements in the conceptualization of huntergatherer cosmologies have provided a new means
to address complex human-animal relationships as expressed in ritual contexts. When humans adorn their bodies with animal parts, they are overtly signalling their relationships with animals and, more generally, the natural world. This paper seeks to develop a means to reconstruct these relationships from the archaeological record, and, additionally, to understand what relationships are being transferred when ritually charged animal products are transported or exchanged over long distances. To understand the nature of ancient human-animal connections that are expressed in mortuary ritual, we adopt an approach that is grounded in defining the broad economic, technological, and ideological contexts of real interactions between humans and animals, within a deeply historical perspective. Using this method, we believe it is possible to build an understanding of the complex and layered meanings associated with mortuary and ritual-related animal remains. A suite of teeth and toothed elements (mandibles, maxillae, premaxillae) are known to occur in Late Archaic and Woodland ceremonial contexts in the Atlantic provinces and states (e.g., Bourque 1995; Burns 1971; Byers 1979; Ford 1976; Kraft 1976; Snow 2009; Stewart 1982; Tuck 1994; Turnbull 1976; Yesner 1994). In many contexts, the abundance of these objects may be a consequence of preservation issues, because enamel preserves better than bone. However, in sites with good organic preservation, teeth, mandibles, and skull parts are most often found in mortuary and ceremonial contexts (e.g., Byers 1979; Jelsma 2006; Stewart 1982; Tuck 1994). Outside the Atlantic Provinces and New England states, teeth and toothed elements are also prominent among animal remains included in Woodland period burial assemblages (e.g., Carr and Case 2005:359; Dancey 2005:114; Ritchie 1944:149, 165, 1965:218254). In this study we consider the archaeological occurrence and distribution of shark teeth in the Northeast. Occurring both as extant (unfossilized) and fossilized remains, shark teeth have been discovered in ceremonial contexts ranging from Nova Scotia to Illinois and from Newfoundland to Maryland. While the importance of shark teeth for identifying the extent of exchange networks and mortuary complexes such as Adena and Hopewell
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is well documented (e.g., Ritchie 1965:218 254; Stewart 1994:85; Wright 1994:65, 1999:679), the significance of the shark and the motivations for placing their teeth in ritual and mortuary contexts is poorly understood. Our research explores ancient relationships between humans and sharks through a suite of ritual and mortuary assemblages spanning the Late Archaic to Late Woodland periods on the Maritime Peninsula, an area encompassing Maine and the Canadian Maritime Provinces (Figure 1). We apply the concept of cosmological deixis, or perspectivism (Viveiros de Castro 1998), to the study of mortuary symbolism among ancient hunting and gathering groups. Specifically, in this study, we (1) document the distribution of shark teeth in ritual deposits on the Maritime Peninsula and throughout the Northeast; (2) explore the nature of physical engagements between ancient people and sharks and investigate how these interactions may have changed through time; (3) employ these engagements as a framework within which to explore the spiritual relationships between sharks and people in the past; and (4) consider what aspects of these relationships may have been co-opted through mechanisms of material and ideological exchange. Theoretical and Methodological Considerations
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An intimate human-animal relationship is one of the most prominent tenets of hunter-gatherer ideology (Bird-David 1990; Brightman 1993). Douglas (1990:36; see also Douglas 1966; Tambiah 1969) proposed that animals are signified in human societies by a process of anthropomorphizationaffording animals characteristics similar to humans themselves, especially regarding their relationships to the environment and to each other. As Douglas (1990:35) points out, this concept was first articulated in Radcliffe-Browns (1952:130) theory of totemism. He argued that humans imagine natural phenomenon as a system ... essentially similar to the relations that they have built up in their social structure between one human being and another. Soon after, Levi-Strauss (1962:222) suggested that traditional conceptualizations of animals were essentially a projected mirror
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NL
Port au Choix
NL
QC QC
Augusne Mound
PEI
ME
ON
Pointe-du-Buisson 4
Cow Point
NB NS Sherbrooke Lake Liverpool Port Joli
LeVesconte Mound Point Peninsula NY Jack's Reef MA CT PA NJ Sandy Hill RI VT NH
Indian Island
Turner Farm
Moshier Island
Minister's Island Taylor Hill Seaver Farm/Ticut Ritual/mortuary context with fossil shark teeth Ritual/mortuary context with extant shark teeth Extant tooth in possible ritual/mortuary context Extant tooth in archaeological context Site menond in text
MD West River
Kilometers
0
100
200
300
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of the human world (see Mullin 1999, 2002). Put simply, these concepts suggest that by signifying animals in ritual contexts, people are signifying something about themselves (e.g., Busatta 2008; Fowler 2004; Mullin 2002). Often, this approach leads to a semiotic/structuralist analysis that views animal symbolism through the lenses of anomaly (how symbolic animals are intrinsically different from non-symbolic animals) and metaphor (how animal behaviors or traits reflect human behaviors and social systems). Zooarchaeologists have been attracted to the latter in particular because archaeological recordkeeping generally emphasizes dichotomous contexts of animal disposition (e.g., ceremonial versus domestic contexts; utilized versus non-utilized species) that are amenable to structural analyses. For example, in an explicitly structuralist analysis, Holt (1996) compared species representation in mortuary contexts to those from do-
Figure 1. The Maritime Peninsula (shaded dark gray) and adjacent areas, with sites referred to in the text.
mestic contexts in Mississippian and Late Woodland deposits in the American Bottom. Holt identified groups of mystified animals as those that were repeatedly expressed in zoomorphic art but rarely found in domestic faunal assemblages. She used this patterning to develop a native taxonomy for the period, but was unable to access the underlying meanings behind this structure (Holt 1996:104), partially because she was unwilling to use ethnographic analogy to assist in the development of the necessary metaphors (Holt 1996:9194). As Holt recognized, the use of the structural approach by archaeologists may compel unwarranted use of metaphor and analogy to make sense out of symbolic animal remains. Indeed, such an animals are good to think (LeviStrauss 1963:89) form of analysis has been critiqued because it tends to view animals entirely as symbols of the human condition, while denying their real empirically existing relations with humans (Wilkie and Inglis 2007:18).
Viveiros de Castros (1998, 2004a) concept of Amerindian perspectivism (cosmological deixis) provides a novel point of departure for thinking about aboriginal relationships with animals (and even natural objects and artifacts), which avoids the problems of structuralism. Many aboriginal worldviews presuppose that all animals, and even inanimate objects, have the potential for a spirit or soul. As Viveiros de Castro (1998:471) has documented, many of these societies perceive the natural world and its beings as sharing spiritual unity but a corporeal diversity. In effect, this means that all spiritual beings are internally identical (they are all persons with a soul), and are only differentiated by their physical or manifest form (Viveiros de Castro 1998:471). It should be noted here that human and animal spirits are only considered identical in the sense that they are each endowed with the same set of cognitive and volitional capacities (Viveiros de Castro 2004b:4), which is not to say that they share the same spiritual or physical powers or capabilities (i.e., some souls or spirits are more potent than others). However, given that all souls are generically similar, the fundamental difference between humans, animals, and inanimate objects is their material form, or body (Viveiros de Castro 1999:478, see also Conneller 2004:43). In such a worldview, bodies are viewed as a type of costume composed of multiple components (Conneller 2004:43; Viveiros de Castro 1998:471): in animals these may be fur, scales, claws, and teeth; in humans they may be skin, hair, fingernails, garments, and tools. Because all souls are inherently similar, they have similar goals, feelings, and needs (Viveiros de Castro 2004b:6). However, as Viveiros de Castro (1998:478) describes, each soul perceives the world, and seeks its fulfillment in it, in a manner consistent with its physical form. As such, each being animated by a soul is conceived as a unique subject with its own distinct point of view. While Amerindian perspectivism is based on ethnographic observations of a broad suite of contemporary hunting and gathering populations throughout North and South America (Viveiros de Castro 1998:471), it should not be viewed as a universal ideological tenet applicable to all hunter-gather groups (past and present). Following Conneller (2004a:44), we instead view per-
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spectivism as one of many possible interpretations of ethnographic realitywhat Viveiros de Castro (2004b: 20) would term a transduction. We use this specific interpretation as a framework for exploring ideological relationships between hunter-gatherers and animals. However, as will be discussed below, there is considerable ethnographic evidence to suggest that a form of perspectivism did characterise human-animal relationships on the Maritime Peninsula. As the name implies, cosmological deixis, or perspectivism, is a system for thinking about animals and other natural phenomena. Deixis, a concept derived from semiotics, can be thought of as a reference or index that depends on context (Hornborg 2006:317). An animals physical form forces an exclusive relationship with the world, different from all other animals and humans (Viveiros de Castro 1998:478). As a result, animals and their parts are deictic, or mnemonics to an exclusive way of perceiving, acting, and living (Hornborg 2006:317). To hunter-gatherers, animals may be good to think (Levi-Strauss 1963), but not because they always reflect the human condition; rather, specific animals reference unique ways of perceiving and interacting with the worldthey are indexical categories, cosmological deictics (Viveiros de Castro 1998:478). Viveiros de Castros concept of deixis implies that the context of an animals interaction with the environment is paramountthus, an eagle inhabiting the shores of Lake Superior will have a different perspective than an eagle living on the coasts of Newfoundland. As posited by BirdDavid (1999:573 574), human perceptions of animals are not imposed, but rather discovered in the course of observation and interaction in particular environments. Here indigenous understandings of spirituality are brought about by the relationship between people and the other beings in their environment (Bird-David 1999:573). Evidence for this may be found in the fact that cosmological deixis rarely applies to all animals. While many hunter-gatherer societies consider that every natural phenomenon has the potential for a soul, this potential is not always achieved, nor is each soul considered equally powerful. In fact, potency and ability is a matter of degree and context rather than an absolute (Viveiros de Castro 2004a:470, 476). Animals more commonly
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encountered by humans, typically apex predators and key prey species, are usually credited with special abilities and powers, and often have critical mythological and ideological linkages to humans (Viveiros de Castro 1998:471). Recent research has documented the critical relationship between detailed knowledge of animal behaviors and the traditional mythology surrounding such important creatures (e.g., Hornborg 2006:19). Accepting that real relationships with animals are critical to hunter-gatherers perceptions of those animals leads us to a practical method for linking real-world animal behaviors and biology to ancient human conceptualizations of animals. That is, because animal bodies are different from human bodies, the only way for humans to conceptualize how animals might perceive the world is through observation and interaction. Tracking, stalking, harvesting, and processing prey creates a detailed and unique appreciation for a prey animals means of acting in the world (and, indeed, for the products they provide). Likewise, monitoring, avoiding, competing with and hunting top-tier predators may result in a sympathetic understanding of their singular perspectives. In fact, predators who exploit the same prey and environmental niches as hunter-gatherers may sometimes even be considered conspecificsclosely related animals who share similar motivations, actions, and perceptions as humans (Conneller 2004:43). Furthermore, certain animals, such as bears, that share similar body shapes and ways of moving with humans, are frequently considered to be conspecifics (e.g., Martin 1978:3637, 117118). The preceding discussion suggests a practical way to link Viveiros de Castros concept of perspectivism to animal remains from mortuary and ritual contexts. By defining the recurring types of real engagements between people and these animals, archaeologists may begin to understand how ancient humans perceived the unique perspectives of certain creatures and thus why they were considered to be so special. In a response to critiques of the structural approach to human-animal relationships, Douglas (1990) has proposed a similar method. She advocates paying minute attention...to how animals interact with humans and to the interests humans pursue when they chase or eat or tame animals to control the imagination of the researcher (Douglas 1990:24,
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35). Similarly, Reed (1988) suggests that human conceptualizations of animals are in essence natural, having evolved as a refinement of our perception of, and action in, the environment. This sentiment is shared by Ingold (2000:10, after Anderson 2000:116117), who argues that humans conceptualize a shared environment created by mutual interaction with animals in a substantive space, a concept known as sentient ecology. Essentially, these perspectives suggest that humans acquire their perceptions of animals through routine engagements with these animals in substantive spaces. As discussed by Wilkie and Inglis (2007:20; also Lfgren 1985), such a method can be augmented to include a historical perspective that documents a sequence of sentiments for and engagements with animals. This approach, called historical-processualism by Pauketat (2001), or the temporality of the landscape by Ingold (1993, 2000), involves reconstructing the types of recurring human activities that may have brought people into contact with creatures, landscapes, and resources, as well as reconstructing the nature of the landscapes, human groups, animals and resources themselves. As suggested by Douglas (1990:24), the interests of humans, or the social and economic context of the observation and interaction with animals, is also critical. Reconstructing the socioeconomic environment of engagements with animals will permit an understanding of the societal importance of the activities that led to humananimal contacts. Placing this universe of human activities within a historical framework allows us to trace lineages of practice that led to the incorporation of animal parts in ritual contexts. The core of the historical-processual approacha careful reconstruction of the sequence of historical and proximate human practicesis critical because this allows us to examine the progression of meaningful social and economic engagements that culminated in the rituals whose material traces are observed in the archaeological record. We adopt a similar method in our analysis of shark remains from mortuary contexts in the Northeast. Conceptually, reconstructing the types of human behaviors (and the social and economic environment) that may have brought people into contact with these important creatures, as well as the nature and behavior of the animals themselves, allows us to develop an understanding of
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what sorts of animal-environment interactions were meaningful to hunter-gatherers on the Maritime Peninsula. Following the concept of Amerindian perspectivism, we speculate about why the unique perspective of these animals was so important that their teeth were worn on, or placed with, human bodies. We attempt to historically contextualize our analysis, by tracking the relationship of sharks to humans from the Late Archaic to Early Historic periods. Furthermore, if we adopt the theoretical position that all actions develop because of specific historical contingencies (e.g., Pauketat 2001), the ethnohistoric record that describes traditional behavior can provide potent evidence of the unique history of human interactions with the natural and cultural landscape. In this case, ethnographic records may provide insights into human relationships with animals and their body parts that are likely to be rooted in Archaic and Woodland period interactions with these animals. Ethnohistorical Evidence for Wabanaki Perspectivism and Shamanism
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While we recognize that reliance on the ethnographic and ethnohistoric records may be problematic (Trigger 1978), our historical framework necessitates critical consideration of the ethnographic and ethnohistorical accounts of traditional spirituality on the Maritime Peninsula. Here we consult explorers and missionaries accounts of early historic Wabanaki, the traditional name for the indigenous inhabitants of the Maritime Peninsula, including the Mikmaq, Wolastoqiyik, Peskotomuhkatiyik, Abenaki, and Penobscot. As described above, this record must embed clues to antecedent behaviors of the Archaic and Woodland periods. Hornborgs (2006, 2008) recent application of Viveiros de Castros concept of Amerindian perspectivism to the subject of Mikmaq spirituality provides a useful vantage from which to consider traditional relationships between ancient animals and humans on the Maritime Peninsula. Central to Wabanaki cosmology was the concept of buoin (also known as medeolin in the Wolastoqiyik Peskotomuhkatiyik language). To the Wabanaki, buoinroughly translated as spiritual power is the driving force behind all life. While all sub-
jects (animals, people, and inanimate objects) possessed buoin, some had access to greater quantities than others. These powerful beings were themselves also called buoin, literally the personification of this spiritual force. Wabanaki buoin have sometimes been called shamans (Hoffman 1955:428; Johnson 1943; Lockerby 2004), a term that applies if we define a shaman as an individual who possesses the knowledge and spiritual power to act as an intermediary between humans and the supernatural realm (after VanPool 2009:180; cf. Hornborg 2006). Buoin could harness the spiritual power necessary to access knowledge and realms of existence denied to normal beings. This often involved journeys to different worlds, usually facilitated by transforming into an animal (e.g., Hoffman 1955:429). Buoin could also take control of an animal remotely; the animal could then be directed to perform benevolent or malevolent tasks. As described by Hoffman (1955:429), buoin had unique and intimate relationships with these animals, which were considered spiritual guardians or spirit helpers. So close was the relationship between a human and their spirit animal that they were believed to be, essentially, two manifestations of the same being. For the Wabanaki, the ability to communicate with, control, and/or transform into these spirit animals was obtained through the use of a bone or representation of the animal itself (Johnson 1943:7072). These bones, called ntiemel by the Mikmaq, were often concealed in a pouch or medicine bundle and were a direct conduit to the animal and its spiritual power (Hoffman 1955:440442). Each ntiemel had a specific task. Some were powerful conduits through which a transformation could occur, or through which spiritual power could be accessed (Hagar 1896:172); others seem to have been employed exclusively to assist in hunting (e.g., Rand 1894:357). To return to the concept of Amerindian perspectivism, when buoin sought to control or transform into animals, they were seeking to gain a new perspective, a new means of acting in and perceiving the world (Hornborg 2006:318). When the Wabanaki used an animal body part as a costume, adornment, grave good, or tool, they harnessed its point of view and its unique way of interacting with the world. From this vantage,
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animal bodies and their products become an assemblage composed of... ways of perceiving and acting in the world (Conneller 2004:44). In short, animal parts used in clothing, costumes, jewellery, or tools are not fantasies but instruments (Viveiros de Castro 1998:482). For the Wabanaki, the bond between these animal objects and hunting success was critical (Hoffman 1955:449, 452). By gaining the perspective of a predator, a hunter was able to replicate its techniques for capturing prey. Alternatively, to access the perspective of prey provided a critical advantage for a successful hunt. A revealing example of this relationship was documented by Le Clercq (1910:215223), a missionary who lived among the Mikmaq during the seventeenth century. Le Clercq obtained the medicine bundle of a Mikmaw man that contained, among other objects, bones and/or representations of wolverines, birds, bears, beavers, and moose. Believing it was the property of the Devil, Le Clercq callously burned the bag and its contents; thereafter, the Mikmaw man reported meager success in hunting, which he directly attributed to the loss of his medicine bundle. In Wabanaki cosmology, animal parts were both a metonym for the animal and a tool to gain its spiritual power and perspective (Hornborg 2006:325). As both a mnemonic device and an instrument, animal parts were complex entities with entangled meanings. As a mnemonic, the animal part could symbolize the animal itself, the spiritual alliance between the human and the animal, and/or the type of perspective shared between the human and animal. As an instrument, it was used to channel spiritual power and abilities from animal to human, and/or to gain the perspective or talents necessary for successful hunting. It is clear that Wabanaki spirituality incorporated a complex ethnoecology based on detailed observations of the environment in which they lived (Hornborg 2006, 2008). Mikmaq oral histories, especially those involving supernatural or spiritual matters, are replete with detailed observations of animal behavior and biology (Hornborg 2006:19). This strongly suggests that Wabanaki engagements with animals were critical to the development of their particular cosmological deixis; as Hornborg (2006:32) states: Mikmaq tales...deal with real landscapes and real ani-
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mals lives; they do not make allegorical comments on human society... To switch perspective becomes a way of knowing the worldviews of other beings. Thus, Wabanaki spirituality did not make distinctions between culture and nature; Wabanaki shared the same environments and foods as animals, all of whom were considered persons (Hornborg 2006:32). Their perspectivism was based on real-world engagements with animals, whose behaviors and life histories they understood intimately. Through this detailed observation, Wabanaki gained an appreciation for the varying perspectives of predators, prey, and other beings in the natural world. At the same time, these ethnohistorically described beliefs must be viewed as part of a cosmological tradition rooted in prehistoric Wabanaki belief systems. From this perspective, these beliefs might be viewed as an ancient spiritual convention, maintained in the ethnohistorical present, but fundamentally based in human-animal engagements that took place many centuries (or millennia) in the past. Of course, this does not imply that these beliefs were not under constant transformation and renegotiation as Wabanki interacted with contemporary creatures and landscapes. Shark Remains in Mortuary and Ceremonial Contexts on the Maritime Peninsula
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In the following section, we utilize a simplified chrono-cultural schema for presenting information on the temporal distribution and cultural associations of shark-related mortuary and ceremonial evidence on the Maritime Peninsula specifically and the greater Northeast generally. Amalgamating previously developed chronologies specific to the Maritime Peninsula (Black 2002; Blair 2004a; Bourque 1994; Petersen and Sanger 1991), and acknowledging overlap with other regional chronologies in the Northeast (e.g., Burks 2005), we define these periods as: Late Archaic (50003600 B.P.), Terminal Archaic (40002700 B.P.), Early Woodland (31002000 B.P.), Middle Woodland (22001300 B.P.), Late Woodland (1500500 B.P.), and Protohistoric (550350 B.P.). Our schema incorporates temporal overlap specifically to allow for the possibility of phenomena ascribed to different cultural traditions/complexes occurring concurrently. We
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recognize that this schema is not consistent with all local and regional terminologies and chronologies and we employ it as a heuristic device for the present study only. Furthermore, we note that an abrupt shift in the archaeological record on the Maritime Peninsula, ca. 3800 B.P., has been interpreted as evidence for cultural discontinuity, representing the decline of Late Archaic (Moorehead Phase) groups and their replacement by Terminal Archaic (Susquehanna Tradition) peoples who migrated from a southern homeland (e.g., Bourque 1994:2729, 2001:6264; Sanger 2006:241244). This is a complex issue (e.g., Robinson 1996:3841), and the efficacy of diffusion, migration, and population replacement models cannot be reviewed comprehensively here. However, following previous researchers (Blair 2004a, 2004b, 2010:38; Loring 1985:103106;
Figure 2. Extant and fossilized shark teeth from archaeological contexts on the Maritime Peninsula: (a) ochre-stained mako shark teeth from Cow Point (BlDn-2, note polish and blunted cusps); (b) ochre-stained great white shark tooth from Cow Point (BlDn-2); (c, d) great white shark teeth from Ministers Island (BgDs-10, note polish on lingual surface of (d); (e) great white shark tooth from Port Joli (AlDf-24, note worn cusp); (f) great white shark tooth from Gorman Farm (BjCj-1); (g) megalodon fossil shark tooth from Sherbrooke Lake (BeDd-1, note modifications to occlusal margin); (a-d, f) archaeology collection, Canadian Museum of Civilization; (e) reburied on site at request of local band; (g) Archaeology Collection, Nova Scotia Museum.
Magennis and Barbian 1996:98; Robinson 1996:41; Sanger 1991:82), we adopt an approach that views specific shared traits between Late Archaic mortuary customs and those in later periods as representing significant ideological continuity. The earliest evidence of shark remains in an archaeological context on the Maritime Peninsula comes from the Late Archaic (Moorehead Phase) Cow Point cemetery (BlDn-2), near Grand Lake, New Brunswick (Figure 2). The site includes at least 56 mortuary features (Sanger 1973, 1991), of which two were associated with shark teeth. Bone preservation at the site was poor; only the enamel portion of the shark teeth has survived. In Locus 31, a single ochre-covered tooth from a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias; Table 1, Table 2) was recovered; allometry reveals that the length of the individual shark was 3.84.0 m
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Table 1. Taxonomy and Characteristics of Shark Species Referred to in the Text.

Common Name Megalodon Great White porpoise, dolphin, seals, large boney fish, sea turtles, seabirds extinct; unknown very large, broad, triangular, serrated large, broad, triangular, serrated Prey Tooth Shape Habitat extinct; unknown
Family
Species
Lamnidae
Carcharocles megalodon Carcharodon carcharias
Isurus oxyrinchus
Shortfin Mako
seals, swordfish, tuna, large boney fish
long, narrow, smoothedged, with reflex at tip
temperate waters of coastal shelf, near or at surface; small bays and harbours, offshore islands temperate waters of coastal shelf, near or at surface; small bays and harbours, offshore islands short, narrow, smoothedged, with basal cusplets
short, small, curved, and smooth-edged, without reflex at tip
Lamna nasus
Porbeagle
small to medium sized boney fish, squid
Alopiidae
Alopias volpinus
Thresher
small bony fish, squid, crustaceans
temperate coastal waters; near shore and littoral in summer, offshore in winter migratory; nearshore waters in summer, but prefer pelagic waters
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(Steven Cumbaa, personal communication 1999). This tooth (Figure 2b) was associated with six celts and nine slate (argillite) bayonets. One of the bayonets (specimen 137) bears incised decoration composed of right obliques in triangles (Sanger 1973:61), perhaps intended to signify shark teeth (see discussion below). Nearby, in Locus 47, six ochre-stained lower teeth from a shortfin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus) were recovered, again from a large shark (Figure 2a). Locus 47 also contained two abrading stones. The single cusp on each of these teeth has been worn away, and a form of use polish is evident around the labial, buccal, and occlusal surfaces. Radiocarbon assays on wood charcoal indicate the cemetery was in use between 3980 74 (AA22172; 13C = 25.0) B.P. and 3630 135 (SI 988; 13C = 25.0) B.P (Sanger 1991:75). At the Ministers Island site (BgDs-10), on Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick, several mortuary features were excavated that included shark teeth (Sanger 1987). While bone preservation was poor in these contexts, resulting in the recovery only of human teeth and a few small fragments of bone, analysis indicates that at least six individuals were interred in four distinct features (Burns 1971:2). Two of these features, Lot 1 and Lot 2, each contained a single great white shark tooth (Figure 2c, d). In both instances, the shark tooth was recovered in direct association with fragments of a human cranial vault and human teeth. The human teeth recovered from Lot 1 are likely from one individual, aged 1217 years (Burns 1971:3), based on dental wear patterns. Lot 2 contained human skeletal material from two individuals, one aged >25 years and the other 810 years (Burns 1971:5), based on patterns of dental attrition and the presence of deciduous dentition. The teeth from the younger individual are deciduous and may represent a case of curation. However, a deciduous molar from this individual was also associated with a developing and erupting crown (found beneath it in direct association), indicating the mandible was present at deposition (Burns 1971:6). Thus, two interments are represented. The association of the shark teeth with human crania suggests that they were worn around the neck (whether as part of a medicine bundle or pendant is uncertain). Their use as pendants can-
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not be confirmed as the dentin portions of the teeth, through which holes or lashing grooves would usually be made, have disintegrated. However, both teeth are highly polished on their buccal and lingual margins (Figure 2c, d), suggesting post-mortem modificationperhaps a form of use-polish from being worn as pendants or transported in a pouch. Both shark teeth have enamel heights of 2.73 mm, which corresponds with a great white shark ca. 2.6 m in length (calculated from formulae in Helfman et al. 1997:184; Randall 1973:170), strongly suggesting the two teeth are from the same individual. As described by Turnbull (1976:59), the associated artifacts, which include rolled copper beads and chipped and ground celts, are similar to artifacts from the Augustine Mound. These similarities link the Ministers Island mortuary features to other Early Woodland (Adena/Middlesex) ritual sites on the Maritime Peninsula with connections to a greater Northeast ritual complex. A single radiocarbon assay on preserved grass matting produced an age estimate (1930 100 B.P.; Beta 21263; 13C = 25.0) at the extreme recent end of the period in which these cultural influences are present on the Maritime Peninsula. At Port Joli, Nova Scotia, Betts (2008, 2009, 2010) documented a modified great white shark tooth from midden deposits in Area A at the AlDf24 site. The tooth (Figure 2e) was discovered in association with a formal rock-outlined mortuary feature including an adult human mandible and a fragment of worked antler. While the feature was not fully exposed and all remains were reburied, analysis of detailed photographs of the mandible indicate the individual was likely aged 3545 years, based on dental wear patterns (Janet Young, personal communication 2011), An evaluation of the shark tooth prior to reburial revealed that the dentin of the tooth had been modified with side notches, although the base was subsequently broken, leaving only remnants of the notches. Similar modifications of shark teeth in prehistoric South American contexts have been interpreted as modifications for suspension (e.g., Cione and Bonomo 2003:225). As with the Ministers Island specimens, significant wear and polish occurred on the occlusal and buccal margins of the Port Joli tooth, and the single cusp has been worn away. Allometric regression on the enamel height of
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the tooth indicates it belonged to a shark greater than 2.3 m long. Wood charcoal from nearby deposits at the same stratigraphic level as the tooth returned an age estimate of 1430 40 B.P. (Beta 256564; 13C = 23.5). Isolated great white shark teeth have been recovered from other shell midden deposits in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, including Bear River (BdDk-1; Erskine 1959, 1986), Cellars Cove (BdCx-1; Davis 1987; Erskine 1986; Rojo 1990), Reid (BdCx-5; Erskine 1986), Hosking (BeCs-5), Timber Island Brook (AlDf-14; Erskine 1962, 1986), Quarry Island (BjCo-1; Smith and Wintemberg 1929), Gorman Farm (BjCj-1; Davis 1973), and Bocabec (BgDr-25; Suttie 2011). Because of preservation, disturbance, and excavation issues, it is difficult to assign an unquestionable mortuary or ritual association to any of these contexts, although it is important to note that the Quarry Island context contained scattered human remains and Gorman Farm contained bifaces and chipped and ground implements consistent with Early Woodland (Middlesex) ceremonial deposits. Bear River also contained two human interments, although the two recovered shark teeth have no provenience information and were not described by the excavator (Erskine 1986:26) as being part of the burial assemblages. Similarly, the Reid site contained multiple secondary human interments (possibly cremations), although again the excavator (Erskine 1986:6465) provides no direct information on the association of the shark teeth to the mortuary features. Interestingly, the Bocabec, Timber Island, and Gorman Farm shark teeth exhibit wear on the occlusal and labial margins consistent with the Cow Point, Port Joli, and Ministers Island teeth and the Bocabec specimen shows signs that these areas were intentionally blunted through abrasion (Suttie 2011:4). Several fossil megalodon (Carcharodon megalodon) shark teeth have also been recovered from ritual or cache-type deposits in Nova Scotia. A very large megalodon tooth was recovered by a collector at Sherbrooke Lake in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia (BeDd-S1; Figure 2g). The fossil was intentionally retouched around the occlusal margin, perhaps to simulate the serrations found on unfossilized great white shark teeth. The associated artifact assemblage includes pecked and ground celts, large bifaces, and
Betts et al.]
abraders consistent with an Early Woodland (Meadowood) cache (McEachen 1996:74). At Liverpool, Nova Scotia, a collector discovered five fossil megalodon/great white shark teeth in direct association with two stone gouges, a ground slate point or bayonet (since stolen from the museum), and a large side-notched chert point. These teeth are unique because all were deliberately broken, with the root portions of the fossils missing. While no datable remains were recovered, the artifact styles indicate a Middle to Late Archaic (possibly Moorehead Phase) age. Shark teeth do not occur in any of the fossil-bearing formations on the Maritime Peninsula, although they are sometimes recovered offshore by fishermen using scallop drags. This suggests that they were locally inaccessible to prehistoric peoples on the Maritime Peninsula; instead, their source may be the Calvert formation in Chesapeake Bay, the nearest land-based source of shark fossils on the Atlantic Seaboard (Steven Cumbaa, personal communication 2010). Further south, a possible medicine bundle, discovered under a rock that formed part of a hearth feature, was recovered from the Indian Island site, Maine (Snow 2009). As Snow (2009:7) describes it:
The bundle consisted of a wrapping of birchbark that contained 35 shark teeth, 6 rolled copper beads, the deciduous dentition of a human child and a small amount of red ochre (hematite). One of the shark teeth was that of a man eater or white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). The remaining 34 shark teeth were probably from either a thresher (Alopias volpinus ) or a sharp-nosed mackerel [shortfin mako] shark (Isurus oxyrinchus).
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Inspection of the photographs of the latter 34 teeth by Betts indicates that they can only be from a shortfin mako shark (Table 1). The large quantity of teeth might suggest access to an entire individual, although we note that this number is less than half the total number of erupted teeth in an adult shortfin mako shark. Snow (2009:7) records that a radiocarbon assay from wood charcoal recovered from the hearth yielded a normalized age estimate of 1650 115 B.P. (SI-790). At the Moshier Island shell midden site in Casco Bay, Maine, the remains of 14 individuals
were encountered in a single feature of Late Woodland age, interpreted as the mass interment of an extended family unit (Hamilton 1985:78). While complete descriptions of the associated artifacts have not been published, shark teeth (taxon unreported), shell beads, copper beads, and lithics were recovered (Hamilton 1985:78; Yesner 1994:157). There are two normalized radiocarbon assays from the feature: 970 70 B.P. (Beta6408; Mya arenaria shell) and 970 145 B.P. (GX-7061; human bone collagen) (Petersen and Sanger 1991:166). It is necessary here to note that mortuary sites with shark teeth also occur in Atlantic regions both north and south of the Maritime Peninsula. The Maritime Archaic cemetery at Port au Choix, Newfoundland, included a great diversity of animal remains associated with the burial contexts (Jelsma 2006; Tuck 1994). The skeleton of an adult female (Interment 9) was associated with 36 teeth from a shark in the Lamna genus (porbeagle or salmon shark), as well as bear (Ursus sp.), merganser (Mergus sp.), duck (Anatidae) and loon (Gavia sp.) effigy pendants, a gull bill (Larus sp.), gannet wings (Morus sp.), quartz crystals, and a stone resembling a claw or tooth (Tuck 1994:137). While this context has not been directly dated, other mortuary features in close association have provided normalized age estimates between 4290 110 B.P. (I 3788; wood charcoal) and 3690 90 B.P. (I 4682; wood charcoal) (Tuck 1994:163), indicating that these contexts at Port au Choix are roughly contemporaneous with the Late Archaic cemetery at Cow Point inNew Brunswick. Four great white shark teeth were recovered from an early Middle Woodland cemetery at the inland Seaver Farm site in Bridgewater, Massachusetts (Taylor 1970). The teeth, of which only the enamel has survived, were found in direct contact with human teeth, again suggesting the shark teeth were placed or worn around the head. Taylor has suggested that one of these shark teeth may have been used as an arrow point, an interpretation sometimes made of shark teeth in nonceremonial contexts (e.g., Smith and Wintemberg 1929:26). However, given the mortuary and/or ceremonial association of the majority of shark teeth in the study area, this function seems improbable. Two Late Woodland/Protohistoric burial contexts in Massachusetts also revealed shark teeth.
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At the Taylor Hill site in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, a single mako shark tooth was found in a Late Woodland burial of an adult male (Torrey and Bullen 1946). The shark tooth was directly associated with several deciduous human teeth, though no other human remains of this age were found, potentially indicating that the deciduous teeth were intentionally curated and not from the interment of a juvenile individual. Artifacts found in association with the burial include a hone or abrader, a small celt, and a small triangular chert projectile point with a concave base. At the Titicut site in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, a Protohistoric burial (#15) was associated with numerous artifacts and a single unmodified great white shark tooth (Robinson 1967). Burial 15 included the fragmented skeletal remains of a male aged 3540 years, associated with many artifacts, including a pouch containing iron residue and a flint for making fire, an early historic European clay pipe, four triangular chert projectile points with concave bases, three stemmed projectile points, and eight bone/antler awls (Robinson 1967: Figure 6). Excavations at the Sandy Hill site, on the Choptank River, Maryland, revealed a large Early Woodland cemetery adjacent to a Late Woodland ossuary. Two large fossil megalodon shark teeth and one fossil great white or mako shark (genus Isurus or Cosmopolitodus) tooth were discovered in association with poorly preserved human remains and artifacts. Two of the fossil teeth are described as burned, while the other was coated in red ochre. The spectacular array of artifacts recovered from the site includes large stemmed and leaf-shaped bifaces, blocked-end tubular pipes (made from Indiana limestone, Ohio fireclay, and steatite), gorgets, celts, and copper beads, all arguably related to pan-regional Early Woodland (Adena) exchange and ceremonialism (Ford 1976). The Early Woodland West River mortuary site, located just across Chesapeake Bay from Sandy Hill, also contained fossil shark teeth (Ford 1976). The deposit is described as including a cremation pit and a reburial pit, dug for the sole purpose of redepositing the cremated remains with some sort of burial ceremony (Ford 1976:65). Associated with these contexts were numerous artifacts including gorgets, blocked-end tubular pipes made from Indiana limestone and Ohio fire clay, large
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lanceolate and stemmed bifaces, abraders, and various other objects, which Ford (1976) linked to pan-regional Early Woodland (Adena) ceremonialism. Among these artifacts were four fossil megalodon shark teeth found at the base of the reburial pit. Two of the fossils were unmodified; the other two had been intentionally broken and burned (Ford 1976:73). Both of these sites are within 25 miles (40 km) of the Calvert formation (Ford 1976:73), from which the fossil shark teeth found in Nova Scotia were also likely acquired (Steven Cumbaa, personal communication 2010). Normalized radiocarbon age estimates on wood charcoal from the reburial pit range between 1630 200 B.P. (M-148A) and 2130 100 B.P. (M-418B) (Boyce and Frye 1986; Crane and Griffin 1958). Interactions between Humans and Sharks in the Late Archaic and Woodland Periods
Betts et al.]
The association of shark remains with so many mortuary and ceremonial assemblages on the Maritime Peninsula during the Late Archaic through to the Late Woodland periods suggests a deeply rooted symbolic relationship between humans and sharks. The notion of cosmological deixis provides a means to explain what sharks meant, as an indexical category, to prehistoric humans. As discussed above, we can only begin to deconstruct this relationship by focusing on the real-life repeated engagements between humans and sharks. These engagements were the nexuses where this symbolism was engenderedwhere humans observed and interacted with sharks and came to understand their unique perspectives. The shark remains found in mortuary contexts on the Maritime Peninsula belong to three closely related species (one extinct) in the family Lamnidae, as do all identifiable shark remains discussed in this paper (Table 2). This is noteworthy because 19 species of shark, spanning seven families, are known to frequent the coasts of the Maritime Peninsula (Scott and Scott 1988). Why this specific family of large sharks was prioritized in ritual and mortuary contexts is difficult to ascertain, but probably relates to their size and population density, meaning they were both more visible and more frequently encountered and observed by ancient humans. Lamnid sharks are generally quite large, especially compared to other
species known to frequent North Atlantic waters (e.g., Scott and Scott 1988:1237). While other species of large sharks in other families (e.g., Carcharinidae) exhibit similar behaviors and prey on similar species as Lamnid sharks (such as the blue shark, Prionance glauca), they are relatively rare in waters off the Maritime Peninsula (Scott and Scott 1988:2229). Great white and mako sharks are warm season visitors at these latitudes, and have been reported in coastal waters as far north as Newfoundland. Makos occur with greater frequency than do great white sharks, but the feeding habits of the two species are similar. Smaller, younger sharks feed on large boney fish, such as herring, cod, and mackerel (Scott and Scott 1988:15), and are known to pursue their prey into shallow water. Today, human and shark encounters most often occur during fishing forays, and large sharks have been caught in various types of fishing gear, including nets, rod and line, jigs, and weirs. Larger sharks are known to feed on harbor seals, porpoise and swordfish in Atlantic Canada (Campana et al. 2004, 2005; Mollomo 1998). In the Gulf of Maine, both large makos and great whites have been observed attacking swordfish that were harpooned by fishers; in fact, the majority of great white shark encounters in the Gulf of Maine occur during swordfish hunting excursions (Mollomo 1998:208). An excellent, if fictional, account of this sort of shark behavior is famously depicted in Hemingways (1952) The Old Man and the Sea. Makos and white sharks are known for their speed, aggressive behavior, and propensity to steal on-line fish and damage gear (Scott and Scott 1988:16). Both species are known to breach the oceans surface in spectacular leaps, often during the hunting of sea mammals and large fish. While many sharks fin (exposing their dorsal fin above the waters surface), these species are so large that finning is a particularly conspicuous aspect of their behavior. Although human attacks are rare, they are more commonly initiated by lamnid sharks than by any other sharks in North Atlantic waters (Scott and Scott 1988:16). Biologists believe that attacks occur because large sharks mistake swimming humans and small watercraft for marine mammals or large fish. Archaeological evidence from sites such as Turner Farm indicates that Late Archaic people
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actively hunted fish species that are known prey of makos and great white sharks, including swordfish and cod (e.g., Spiess and Lewis 2001). During this period, an active boat-based inshore fishery is believed to have dominated coastal subsistence activities (Spiess and Black 2004; Spiess and Lewis 2001; Spiess and Mosher 2006). Swordfish and cod are believed to have been taken on open nearshore waters from canoes, as evidenced by faunal remains, bone and slate bayonets, plummets, and wood-working tools (e.g., Bourque 2001:5764; Spiess and Lewis 2001: 149, 156). In particular, the presence of gouges in many Late Archaic deposits has often been taken as evidence of the use of dugout canoes during this period (Bourque 1995:91; Snow 1980:198). However, Sanger (2009a, 2009b) proposes that birchbark canoes may also have been used during the Late Archaic (and may have been more suited to seagoing forays). Regardless of the boating technology employed, it would have been on these open-water excursions that Late Archaic hunters encountered sharks. Interactions were probably similar to those experienced by modern fishers in Atlantic waters, who observe sharks finning, breaching and hunting prey, and who know sharks as aggressive and dangerous competitors (e.g., Mollomo 1998:208211). Evidence for sea mammal hunting in the Late Archaic is not well represented (Spiess 1992; Spiess and Black 2004; Spiess and Lewis 2001), although seals do occur in limited frequencies in shell midden contexts. If sealing was limited in the Late Archaic, the majority of shark encounters probably occurred during fishing activities, rather than sea mammal hunting. Given their low densities, and the paucity of shark teeth in Late Archaic domestic contexts, it seems unlikely that lamnid sharks were taken in significant quantities either as prey, bycatch, or beached carcasses, similar to modern times (Campana et al. 2004, 2005). Regardless, given that a single shark can have hundreds of erupted teeth, the rare encounter of a beached carcass, or killing of a live shark, may have been a significant source of shark teeth. Unlike the preceding Archaic period, open-water swordfish hunting in the Woodland period is not well-supported by available faunal or artifactual evidence (e.g., Black 1993, 2004; Spiess and Lewis 2001). However, seal hunting, particularly
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for grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) and harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) increased dramatically during the Woodland period. On balance, the available evidence suggests that the majority of seals were taken at rookeries and haulouts (e.g., Black 2003; Spiess 2003; Spiess and Lewis 2001), a strategy that appears to have increased substantially in the Late Woodland period (Bourque 1995:221; Spiess and Lewis 2001:148). Ethnohistoric evidence indicates that these hunts often took place at offshore islands or islets using boating technology (e.g., Denys 1908:349). Inshore hook-and-line fishing from canoes is well evidenced by the remains of demersal fish, such as cod, in many Woodland period shell-bearing sites (Betts 2008, 2009; Black 1993, 2004; Spiess and Lewis 2001). Evidence of fishing with the aid of weirs extends from the Late Archaic through Woodland period (e.g., Dincauze and Decima 2002; Johnson 1942; Petersen et al. 1994). Whatever the procurement differences between the Late Archaic and Woodland periods, it is likely that human hunters in both periods were encountering sharks in their ocean habitat as the two species competed for similar marine resources. These encounters would have resulted in an intimate knowledge of shark behaviors and, thus, a deep appreciation of their unique perspective. However, it is important to point out some subtle potential differences in the nature of encounters between humans and sharks during these two periods. In the Late Archaic period, fishers may have had unique and extended contact with sharks as they competed for (and, perhaps, fought over) swordfish, an exploitation strategy not archaeologically evident in Woodland period times. Although details of the transition from dugout boats to birchbark boats are unknown, and estimations for the timing of the introduction of birchbark canoes range from the Late Archaic/Terminal Archaic to the Middle-Late Woodland transition (Black 2004; Blair 2010; Bourque 1995; Sanger 2009b; Spiess and Black 2004), this change in transportation technology must have affected the nature of direct human contacts with sharks. Although evidence indicates that even a sturdy wooden dory is vulnerable to a severe shark bite, dories usually survive the attacks of large sharks (Mollomo 1998:208209), and dugout canoes would likely be similarly resis-
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tant. A birchbark vessel, however, would be more vulnerable to shark attacks; in fact, ethnohistorical accounts of Mikmaw sea voyages emphasize this vulnerability. As de Paul (1886:29) states:
Another time that I started [from Tracadie, N.S.] on a mission to this same Cape [Breton] the Indians who conducted me in a canoe perceived three monstrous fish called maraches and they were frightened, as these fish are very dangerous. Their teeth are made like gardeners knives for cutting and boring, or like razors slightly bent [Table 1; probably a mako shark]. They are extremely voracious, and often follow boats, attacking them with violence. Bark canoes cannot resist them, they rend them open with their teeth, so that they sink to the bottom, which is why the Indians have such a terror of them.
Betts et al.]
Sanger (2009a, 2009b) has recently addressed the issue of the use of dugout boating technology and argues that the presence of gouges and woodworking paraphernalia alone provides slim evidence for the preferential use of dugout canoes during the Late Archaic period. In fact, he posits that birchbark canoes, given their weight and manoeuvrability, would have been a more adequate vessel for conducting inshore harpooning and jigging forays (Sanger 2009b:26, 29). If such is the case, the propensity of sharks to imperil vessels as well as hunters/fishers might have been tied up in human-shark spirituality from a very early period. Signifying Sharks in the Late Archaic and Woodland Periods
A historical perspective presupposes that the ethnographic record embeds clues to ancient belief systems. As discussed previously, for Wabanaki buoin/medeolin, a shark ntiemel (animal part) was both a mnemonic to a deictic category (the shark) and an instrument through which the buoin could access the spiritual power and/or acquire knowledge and abilities to facilitate hunting. Viveiros de Castro (1998:478) indicates that animal behaviors constitute a series of effects or ways of being that constituted a habitus. If the ethnographic record is applicable, when the ancestors of the Wabanaki adorned themselves with shark teeth, they may have been attempting to
adopt the sharks habitus specifically to perceive and act in the world as a shark does (e.g., Hornborg 2006:43). What was it about shark behavior that made this desirable? On the Maritime Peninsula, ancient human encounters with sharks may have taken three primary forms: (1) observation, of sharks breaching, finning, or hunting prey; (2) competition, as sharks and humans actively sought the same prey at the same time; and (3) confrontation, as sharks and humans fought over prey, or as sharks attacked humans and their vessels. A fourth type of encounter likely occurred far less frequently, as humans found deceased sharks washed up on shore. Such encounters are rare, even today (e.g., Mollomo 1998:212), but may have been a significant source of shark teeth in the archaeological record, as well as detailed information about their unique anatomies. Repeated observations of sharks by huntergatherers would have resulted in a detailed knowledge of shark behavior. Great white and mako sharks, among the fastest and most powerful fish in the ocean, with multiple rows of serrated teeth, and unique sensory organs unlike other fish, may have been perceived as beings of almost supernatural predatory skill. Exploiting the same prey and ecological niches as humans, but much more efficiently, sharks may have been appreciated as the embodiment of the effortless, deadly, marine hunter/fisher. From the vantage of cosmological deixis, sharks would be considered conspecifics, beings with similar motivations and perspectives as humans. This may have created a close spiritual connection between sharks and humans, both symbolically, as beings that shared the same perspective on the marine environment, and practically, as marine hunter-gatherers sought to gain the unique predatory abilities of sharks. By using shark teeth as ntiemel (objects of power) in medicine bundles or as pendants, humans were both signifying their spiritual connection to sharks and attempting to adopt their habituswith the aim of gaining some of the sharks abilities. We may consider related burial objects within this framework. The triangle or zig-zag motif on Late Archaic bayonets, bone daggers, and foreshafts (e.g., Byers 1979; Rowe 1940; Sanger 1973, 1991, 2009b) have been suggested to represent stylized rows of shark teeth (Keenlyside
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1999:64). If these artifacts are, in fact, marine hunting weapons, or stylized versions of functional counterparts (e.g., Sanger 1973:51; Keenlyside 1999:63), Late Archaic hunters may have been making a direct link between the bayonet/dagger and the shark tooth. Given that these objects were each species primary means of dispatching prey, and accepting that sharks and humans were seen as conspecifics, this symbolic relationship would have been extremely significant. A core tenet of shamanistic ritual is the concept of transformation (e.g., Guenther 1999:426427), where the shaman can shift between realms of existence (the land, the sea, the air), or change directly into other animals or animal-human hybrids. Ethnohistorically, transformation into other beings or between realms of existence was central to a Wabanaki buoins (shamans) power, and it is clear that the bones of animal familiars (ntiemel) were conduits through which this transformation took place (Johnson 1943:7072). Shamanistic paraphernalia has long been associated with Early Woodland mortuary ceremonialism in the Northeast (see e.g., Brown 1997; Carr and Case 2005:91). The link between shamanism and Late Archaic cemeteries in the Northeast has not been studied in detail, but given its prevalence among later groups, this common hunter-gatherer ideological system likely had its roots in the Late Archaic, if not earlier. Lamnid sharks, as some of the worlds fastest swimmers and as apex marine predators, would naturally have become attractive targets for a shamans animal transformation. However, it is the sharks propensity to breach and fin that may have been even more meaningful to shamanistic peoples. Breaching and finning sharks are the quintessence of a transformative animal: a liminal organism that can leave its marine realm and penetrate the surface in this case with spectacular and often terrifying results. Thus, during the Late Archaic and Woodland periods, the shark tooth may have signified both this transformative quality and its importance in the spiritual life of maritime peoples, while providing a material conduit through which such transformations could take place. That said, even deeper meaning may be revealed by a consideration of the broad social and cultural context of human-shark interactions. As an indexical category (Viveiros de Castro 1998:478),
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sharks represent a unique way of perceiving the marine world that was also shared by their human conspecificsthat of an apex marine predator. And yet, while sharks maintain this perspective as a natural condition, it is achieved only by humans adopting complex cultural and behavioral accoutrements. For maritime hunter-gatherers, openwater hunts represented critical cultural moments: the crucible in which technological, procurement, and dietary strategies were forged into an integrated way of life. Put another way, open-water hunts involved people with state-of-the-art transportation and procurement technologies, employing the most complex and intricate hunting strategies they could devise, pursuing animals with the highest caloric returns, at the greatest risk of failure and personal catastrophe. And it was in these watershed moments, when an entire socioeconomic system was being put to the test, that humans engaged with sharks. As a cosmological deictic and a conspecific, sharks may have represented a fulcrum around which humans could both think about and signal their complex technological, economic, logistical, and socioecological relationships with the marine environment. From this perspective, we may also explore the significance of bone daggers and slate bayonets found in Moorehead Phase ritual deposits. If, as Sanger (2009b:11) suggests, bone daggers were used to administer the coup de grace to a harpooned swordfish or other aquatic creature, then they may have held powerful ideological connotations. In short, used at the ultimate climax of the marine hunting foray, these tools embodied the critical moment of the maritime hunt and therefore the marine way of life itself. The exquisitely crafted and decorated slate bayonets found in Moorehead Phase cemeteries, which may be stylized non-utilitarian versions of bone daggers (Sanger 1991:77, 79, 2009b:11), may also have been imbued with a similar meaning. The form of these slate toolswhich mimics the shape of a swordfish rostrum (e.g., Bourque 1995:7, 238) provides a further entanglement with maritime foraging and its social, economic, and environmental correlates. Given that primary interactions with sharks likely took place while on open-water fishing and hunting excursions, a gender- and/or age-centric attribution for shark symbolism might be sug-
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gested. Specifically, ethnohistoric sources suggest that adult males might have been primary participants in fishing and hunting excursions (e.g., Hoffman 1955:269271, 311), and therefore might have a prioritized relationship to sharks. However, the limited human skeletal evidence available indicates that shark remains may crosscut age and sex boundaries. While the skeletal evidence is far from conclusive, the association of children, men, and women with shark teeth reinforces their potential meaning as emblems representing an entire society, rather than a gendered or aged subset of that society. This further supports the concept that the marine way of lifea profound identification with the seawas critical to the identity of many ancestral Wabanaki and their predecessors. Finally, large lamnid sharks are beings of explosive power and terror, and prehistoric hunters and fishers undoubtedly witnessed attacks on watercraft, competition for prey, and perhaps even direct predation on humans. The importance of this perception of sharks is suggested by Mikmaw oral traditions, which emphasize their terrifying attributes (de Paul 1886; Lockerby 2004; Martjin 1986). Indeed, adopting the sharks perspective through the medium of a tooth, or perhaps exercising the ability to control the animal through the abilities of a buoin, may have provided some sense of security when interacting with these frightening creatures. It is possible that this perception of sharks may have intensified through time, with the presumed switch from dugout canoes to birchbark canoes (Blair 2010:4143), which are highly susceptible to attack from a large shark. Transportation and Exchange of Shark Teeth in the Northeast
Betts et al.]
The earliest direct evidence for exchange in shark teeth appears to be along the Atlantic Seaboard during the Late Archaic period, as evidenced by fossil megalodon shark teeth from the Calvert Formation in a Late Archaic assemblage from Liverpool, Nova Scotia (Figure 1). What might have been the motivations for transporting/exchanging these fossil teeth, if extant versions were available? Except for size, megalodon teeth are strikingly similar to those of the great white shark
(Table 1, Figure 2). We infer that the attributes of living sharks, especially great whitesas cosmological deicticswere transferred to, and perhaps intensified, in these massive stone simulacra. The next direct evidence for the transportation of shark teeth occurs again in Nova Scotia, where a large megalodon fossil tooth from the Chesapeake Bay Calvert formation was discovered in an Early Woodland (Meadowood Phase) cache assemblage found near Sherbrooke Lake. Reinforcing the link between megalodon and great white sharks, this specimen was retouched around the occlusal margin, possibly to simulate the serrations on an extant great white shark tooth. The Early Woodland period represents a time when there is considerable evidence of the grafting of external customs and material culture on to local traditions in the Maritime Peninsula. It should be noted that this appears to involve a series of pan-regional cultural phenomena, which resulted in a large number of local hybrid entities throughout the Northeast. In this light, the appearance of fossil shark teeth in Early Woodland ceremonial assemblages in Chesapeake Bay, near the source of the fossils, is particularly noteworthy. While shark teeth from sources in Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico are sometimes cited as components of interior Adena-related assemblages (e.g., Brose 1994; Griffin 1967), our review of the literature revealed no credible report of shark remains in a non-coastal Adena-related site. The first evidence of interior-coastal trade of shark teeth appears to be down the St. Lawrence River trade route defined by Wright (1994:6566). Two fossil great white shark teeth that were found in Early Woodland deposits in the Pointe-du-Buisson 4 site near Montreal may have come from trade with Atlantic Canadian groups, who had access to Calvert formation fossils since Archaic times (Clermont and Chapdelaine 1982:112; see also Wright 1994:66). While the stratigraphic association of these teeth is problematic (Clermont and Chapdelaine 1982:110), it seems likely, given the evidence presented above, that they were associated with Meadowood Phase ceremonial material recovered at Point-du-Buisson 4 and the nearby Meadowood Phase cemetery at Pointe-du-Buisson 5 (Clermont 1978). Further up the St. Lawrence drainage, near Rice Lake Ontario, a perforated extant great white
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Table 2. Summary of Mortuary/Ritual Contexts in the Atlantic Provinces and New England (and adjacent states) Where Shark Teeth Have Been Recovered (N/A denotes sex and age of human remains are undetermined due to poor preservation).
Shark Species Great white Ca. 4000 B.P.3650 B.P. N/A Ground celts Argillite bayonets Red ochre Abrasive stones N/A Age of Deposit Age and Sex of Associated Human Remains Associated Diagnostic Artifacts Source Sanger (1973)
Site Name
Province or State
Number of Shark Teeth
Cow Point Locus 31 Shortfin mako Great white Great white Ca. 1950 BP
New Brunswick
Sanger (1973) Burns (1971) Burns (1971)
Ca. 4000 B.P.3650 B.P. Ca. 1950 BP Rolled copper beads Chipped and ground celts Rolled copper beads Chipped and ground celts
Cow Point Locus 47 Ministers Island Lot 1 Ministers Island Lot 2
New Brunswick New Brunswick New Brunswick
Port Joli Megalodon Early Woodland
Nova Scotia
Great white
Ca. 1450 B.P.
Worked antler
Betts (2010) McEachen (1996)
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Sherbrooke Lake Megalodon Middle-Late Archaic Ca. 4300 B.P.3700 B.P. Unreported contextual data
Nova Scotia
1 (fossilized)
One individual aged 12-17 years (sex unknown) One individual aged > 25 years (sex unknown), one individual aged 8-10 years (sex unknown) One individual aged 35-45 years (sex unknown) Possible non-mortuary ritual context
Liverpool
Nova Scotia
Chipped and ground celts Cache bifaces Abrasive stones Fully channelled (?) gouge Side-notched projectile points
Port au Choix Interment 9 1 great white, 34 shortfin mako Ca. 1650 B.P.
Newfoundland
5 (fossilized, broken) 36 Porbeagle or Salmon shark (Lamna sp.)
One female aged > 21 years
Jelmsa (2006) Tuck (1994)
Indian Island
Maine
35
One individual aged 2-10 years (sex unknown)
Effigy pendants and stones Sea gull bill Gannet wing bones Quartz crystals Birch bark (part of bundle) Rolled copper beads Red ochre
Snow (2009)
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Betts et al.]
Moshier Island Great white Shortfin mako Late Woodland/ Protohistoric Protohistoric Middle Woodland
Maine
Unreported
Unreported
Ca. 950 B.P.
Hamilton (1985) Yesner (1994) Taylor (1970) Torrey and Bullen (1946) Robinson (1967)
Seaver Farm
Massachusetts
Multiple individuals of various ages and sexes (specifics not reported) N/A
Shell beads Copper beads Lithics (unreported type) Cache bifaces
Taylor Hill
Massachusetts
Titicut Internment 15 Great white
Massachusetts
One individual aged 2-10 years (sex unknown), one male aged > 21 years One male aged 35-40 years
Sandy Hill
Maryland
3 (fossilized)
2 megalodon, 1 great white or shortfin mako
Early Woodland
N/A
Ford (1976)
West River
Maryland
4 (two broken and burned)
Megalodon
Ca. 2150 B.P.1650 B.P.
N/A
Abrading stone Ground celt Triangular projectile point Iron residue Flint strike-a-light European clay pipe Triangular projectile points Stemmed projectile points Bone awls Red ochre Cache bifaces Blocked-end tubular pipes Gorgets Ground celts Copper beads Cache bifaces Blocked-end tubular pipes Gorgets Abrading stones
Ford (1976)
639
shark tooth was placed with an infant interment in the Middle Woodland (Point Peninsula complex) LeVesconte Mound. The context is dated to between 1720 55 B.P. (DIC-732) and 1830 50 B.P. (DIC-107) based on assays on human bone collagen (Kenyon 1986:88; Wright 1994:65). Given its near contemporaneity with the Ministers Island shark teeth, it is possible that the Rice Lake shark tooth may have been acquired directly from the Atlantic provinces/states, though Wright (1994:6566) notes several other potential sources, such as Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Between ca. 2000 B.P. and 1500 B.P. fossilized and extant shark teeth became relatively widespread in Middle Woodland (Hopewell culture) sites throughout the Midwest (e.g., Carr and Case 2005:608), as well as related sites (Hopewell Interaction Sphere/Point Peninsula complex) in interior New York state, such as Point Peninsula and Jacks Reef (Ritchie 1944:69,165; Ritchie 1965). Many of the extant teeth found in these sites were perforated (e.g., Ritchie 1965:218, 234), presumably for suspension as pendants. Carr and Case (2005:206) specifically include shark teeth as part of a greater assemblage of paraphernalia related to public shamanistic ritual in the Hopewell culture, and Ritchie (1965:254) uses perforated shark teeth as a defining trait of the Point Peninsula complex (part of the Hopewell Interaction Sphere) in New York. Fossil shark teeth, in particular, appear to have been traded out of the Chesapeake area in large numbers during these times (Ritchie 1965:252) and have been found in caches containing dozens of fossil great white, mako, and megalodon teeth (Murphy 1975:27). What were the motivations for Hopewell peoples and those that interacted with them to draw in animal relics from sources as far away as the Rocky Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean (e.g., Carr and Case 2005:608, 349)? Explanations that emphasize economic motivations (the exchange of shark teeth for other valuable commodities such as toolstone, tobacco, and religious paraphernalia) are obvious, but do not take into account the innate symbolic value of animal remains. What if the social and ideological contexts of the exchange, on both sides, were as important, Discussion and Conclusions
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AMERICAN ANTIQUITY
or more important, than the economic benefits? As discussed by Viveiros de Castro (2004a:473) in the context of cosmological deixis, any exchange is an exchange of perspectives. For the receiver, what is really transferred is the ability to access a new way of living and acting in the environmentthat is, access to a new animals perspective. For a Hopewell shaman, accessing the perspectives of exotic creatures and their unique spiritual and physical powers may have been critical. Many of the creatures represented in Hopewell ritual contexts exemplify traits significant to a shamans transformational journey (Brown 1997; Carr and Case 2005:358363; DeBoer 1997:Figure 9; Holt 1996; Kraft 1976). These include animals adept at swimming, flying, and running, dangerous animals known to prey on humans, and liminal creatures that span groundair, ground-water or water-air interfaces. Sharing all of these qualities, the shark was an obvious exotic creature to appropriate for inclusion in ceremonial contexts that emphasized these sorts of capabilities. At the same time, the shark tooth may have represented a potent emblem of a relationship with peoples in other societies. As a conspecific, a sharks way of living in the sea is analogous to the way coastal hunter-gatherers in the Northeast made their living from the sea. To the giver, exchanging shark teeth may have reinforced the cultural importance of the behaviorsmarine hunting/fishingthat brought people into interaction with sharks. To the receiver, shark teeth may have signified both a relationship to a group of people with a uniqueand otherway of living, and a means to access their point of view through the transformative power of the tooth. In effect, shark teeth may have signalled, in a phenomenological way, who coastal peoples were, both to themselves and to others. This suggests a potent rationale for their inclusion as sacred objects in ritual and mortuary contexts from the Late Archaic through the Late Woodland, a period spanning at least three millennia. Loring (1985; see also Bourque 1994; Dragoo 1976) has discussed the Early Woodland mortuary contexts along the North Atlantic Coast as representing a set of religious symbols and behaviors incorporated into what was essentially a Late Archaic mortuary system, in the process forming
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distinct local religious entities. Shark remains may provide some support for ideological continuity from the Late Archaic through the Early Woodland periods. From this perspective, it is interesting that no extant or fossil shark teeth have ever been discovered in Terminal Archaic (Susquehanna Tradition and contemporaneous manifestations) archaeological contexts in Maine or the Maritime Provinces. The Susquehanna Tradition has often been interpreted as having a more interior-adapted subsistence orientation (e.g., Black 2000; Bourque 1995; Sanger 1988; Spiess and Lewis 2001; Spiess and Mosher 2006), and, thus, it is not surprising that this icon of a marine way of life is absent from Susquehanna ritual and mortuary assemblages. Moreover, it may be noteworthy that, unlike the Maritime Provinces, no shark teeth or fossils have been found in Early Woodland contexts in Maine, where the Susquehanna Tradition appears significantly better developed and apparently more pervasively integrated (e.g., Sanger 2006). While recurring interactions with sharks helped to perpetuate the human-shark spiritual relationship from the Late Archaic through the Late Woodland periods, the importance of sharks in later periods must also be viewed from the perspective of peoples maintaining an ancient ideological tradition. By the Early Woodland period, this tradition may have had roots so ancient that it transcended action, memory, and oral histories to become a persistent tenet, perhaps capable of resisting changing technologies and economies that otherwise might have modified the nature of human-shark interactions. So pervasive had this ideological tenet become that it was woven into introduced Early Woodland period mortuary customs (Adena, Middlesex, Meadowood) that spread across much of the northeastern Atlantic Seaboard from the Canadian Maritimes to Maryland. It seems this coastal trait eventually penetrated into the centers of the great Woodland socioeconomic and ceremonial networks, perhaps originally via the St. Lawrence trade route. It intensified in the Middle Woodland period, with fossil and extant shark teeth flowing from the Atlantic seaboard into Hopewell centers (Carr and Case 2005:608; Murphy 1975), while still occurring as fundamental mortuary and ritual accoutrements on the Maritime Peninsula.
Betts et al.]
In conclusion, we believe shark teeth reveal how a deeply embedded spiritual relationship, one with a pedigree spanning at least a thousand years, was integrated into local expressions of widespread religious movements and subsequently transplanted throughout the Northeast. We believe our theoretical and methodological approach can be applied to other animal remains and effigies from ritual contexts in the Northeast and elsewhere. Such analyses may expose the deep histories of animal interactions that were embedded in local, regional, and trans-regional religious practices. An example may be found in the killer whale (Orcinus orca) stone effigies at the Archaic Port au Choix cemetery in Newfoundland. As apex marine predators, killer whales exhibit many of the behavioral characteristics of sharks, and were probably brought into contact with humans in similar ways. The killer whale effigies at Port au Choix are likely a regional expression of a conspecific relationship between predators on a shared landscape (Tuck 1994:92), in many respects similar to the relationship signalled by the shark remains at the site (e.g., Keenlyside 1999:64). On the Maritime Peninsula, Late Archaic and Woodland cemeteries and ritual deposits were locations where relationships between animals and humans were overt. This is to say, the shared perspectives and lives of humans and sharks, and the transformative power that could be gained from this relationship, were explicitly signalled and exploited in these contexts. Our analysis indicates that shark teeth in mortuary and ceremonial contexts signalled complex and entangled meanings; they were, all at the same time, the embodiment of a maritime way of life, an emblem and instrument of shamanistic transformation, and a relic from a real living creature that wasin equal measureicon, comrade, competitor, and monster.
641
Acknowledgments. The research for this paper was supported by funds from the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the University of New Brunswick. Fieldwork for Betts was undertaken in collaboration with Acadia First Nation; their continued support is greatly appreciated. Karen Ryan, Stephen Augustine, Jean-Luc Pilon, and David Morrison provided valuable comments on the manuscript and the concepts therein. Christopher Watts reviewed an early version of the paper and his suggestions had a significant influence on many aspects of our approach. Lucy Johanis kindly translated the English abstract into French. Stephen Powell and Brent Sut-
tie provided crucial data and photographs of shark teeth in the collections of the Nova Scotia Museum and New Brunswick Archaeological Services, respectively. We are grateful to Karine Tach who invited us to participate in a stimulating session entitled Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to Interactions in Eastern North America at the Society for American Archaeology conference in St. Louis, Missouri. As session discussants for that symposium, Adrian Burke and Elizabeth Chilton provided insightful comments on the written version of the paper. We thank Alison Rautman, Kenneth Sassaman, Michael Deal, and three other anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful substantive and editorial comments.
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Submitted April 15, 2011; Revised September 29, 2011; Accepted November 1, 2011.

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PERSPECTIVISM, MORTUARY SYMBOLISM, AND HUMAN-SHARK RELATIONSHIPS ON THE MARITIME PENINSULA

Matthew W. Betts, Susan E. Blair, and David W. Black

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PERSPECTIVISM, MORTUARY SYMBOLISM, AND HUMAN-SHARK RELATIONSHIPS

NB NS Sherbrooke Lake Liverpool Port Joli

LeVesconte Mound Point Peninsula NY Jack's Reef MA CT PA NJ Sandy Hill RI VT NH

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PERSPECTIVISM, MORTUARY SYMBOLISM, AND HUMAN-SHARK RELATIONSHIPS

[Vol. 77, No. 4, 2012

PERSPECTIVISM, MORTUARY SYMBOLISM, AND HUMAN-SHARK RELATIONSHIPS

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Table 1. Taxonomy and Characteristics of Shark Species Referred to in the Text.

Carcharocles megalodon Carcharodon carcharias

seals, swordfish, tuna, large boney fish

long, narrow, smoothedged, with reflex at tip

small to medium sized boney fish, squid

PERSPECTIVISM, MORTUARY SYMBOLISM, AND HUMAN-SHARK RELATIONSHIPS

small bony fish, squid, crustaceans

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PERSPECTIVISM, MORTUARY SYMBOLISM, AND HUMAN-SHARK RELATIONSHIPS

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PERSPECTIVISM, MORTUARY SYMBOLISM, AND HUMAN-SHARK RELATIONSHIPS

Number of Shark Teeth

Sanger (1973) Burns (1971) Burns (1971)

Cow Point Locus 47 Ministers Island Lot 1 Ministers Island Lot 2

New Brunswick New Brunswick New Brunswick

Port Joli Megalodon Early Woodland

Ca. 1450 B.P.

Betts (2010) McEachen (1996)

5 (fossilized, broken) 36 Porbeagle or Salmon shark (Lamna sp.)

One female aged > 21 years

Jelmsa (2006) Tuck (1994)

One individual aged 2-10 years (sex unknown)

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Ca. 950 B.P.

Shell beads Copper beads Lithics (unreported type) Cache bifaces

Titicut Internment 15 Great white

2 megalodon, 1 great white or shortfin mako

PERSPECTIVISM, MORTUARY SYMBOLISM, AND HUMAN-SHARK RELATIONSHIPS

4 (two broken and burned)

Ca. 2150 B.P.1650 B.P.

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[Vol. 77, No. 4, 2012

PERSPECTIVISM, MORTUARY SYMBOLISM, AND HUMAN-SHARK RELATIONSHIPS

[Vol. 77, No. 4, 2012

PERSPECTIVISM, MORTUARY SYMBOLISM, AND HUMAN-SHARK RELATIONSHIPS

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