Foragers land use, with maps

Characterization of a foraging subsistence-settlement system (San).

Characterization of a collector subsistence-settlement system (eskimo).

An old Eskimo man was asked how he would summarize his life; he thought for a moment and said, "Willow smoke and dogs' tails: when we camp it's all willow smoke, and when we move all you see is dogs' tails wagging in front of you. Eskimo life is half of each."

The forage psychogeographer takes away two things from Lewis Binford's 'Willow Smoke and Dogs' Tails: Hunter-Archaeological Site Formation' (1980). Namely: a differentiation of  lifestyles between foragers (for example: the San) and collectors (for example: Eskimo) and the different land-uses associated with them.

In contrast to foragers, collectors are characterized by (1) the storage of food for at least part of the year and (2) logistically organized food-procurement parties. The latter situation has direct "site" implications in that special task groups may leave a residential location and establish a field camp or a station from which food-procurement operations may be planned and executed.

For foragers, I recognized two types of site, the residential base and the location. Collectors generate at least three additional types of sites by virtue of the logistical character of their procurement strategies. These I have designated the field camp, the station, and the cache. A field camp is a temporary operational center for a task group. It is where a task group sleeps, eats, and otherwise maintains itself while away from the residential base. Field camps may be expected to be further differentiated according to the nature of the target resources, so we may expect sheep hunting field camps, caribou-hunting field camps, fishing field camps, etc.