94 Alaskan Science Conference 



wards the barren grounds, but in late August and September 

 they return in herds to the forested interior, crossing the Yukon 

 River and the mountain range to the south, to disperse later 

 into small bands scattered among the valleys and plateaus for 

 winter foraging. Their crossings of the rivers and mountains 

 while in large herds are so strictly patterned in the spring and 

 fall that Athapascan hunters have been able to gather together 

 and repair their diverting "fences" with full assurance that the 

 caribou would come to them. The Athapascans are nomadic in 

 the sense of moving their customary hunting sites when the 

 caribou change their crossings, but they are not nomadic in 

 the sense of following the herds from one seasonal range to 

 another. In the off season, the hunters depend upon fish, birds, 

 small game and vegetable products. They also know how to 

 preserve meat when the supply is plentiful. 



It is difficult to picture a human society, either in Paleolithic 

 Europe or today, that is dependent on one source of food, and 

 one alone. Although we lack evidence on which to compare 

 the habits of caribou to such extinct animals as mammoths, 

 it is even more difficult to picture a society that adapts itself 

 to annual migrations. Therefore, when we say that man follows 

 his game animals, we may mean simply that over many genera- 

 tions the locus of customary seasonal hunting at game crossings 

 can slowly change. 



This process of slowly accommodating to the habits of game 

 animals can be inferred from the archaeological record in some 

 parts of the world, and in one or two cases it seems to have been 

 relatively rapid— as in the spread of a thin population in search 

 of whales carrying the Thule Culture along the shores of the 

 Arctic Sea. However, we see little evidence for the mass migra- 

 tion within one generation beyond the customary range of band 

 or tribe. 



Again, from the ethnographical picture in thinly populated 

 areas, there appears to be a strong tendency for stability over 

 long periods of time. Hunters and gatherers who command 

 many square miles per unit of population have no need to move 

 because of invasions by hostile groups— a sparse population pre- 



