This chapter is concerned with ethnoarchaeological contributions to understanding of subsistence-settlement systems, the broad patterns of interaction between demography, economic adaptations, and the environment that result in distribution across the landscape of interrelated sites of varying importance and function. We take a traditional (but not evolutionary) approach, treating studies of hunter-gatherer settlement before ones relating to pastoralists and cultivators. The chapter concludes by discussing contrasts and the concepts of mobility and sedentism.

Settlement patterns and subsistence-settlement systems

Settlements often leave substantial tangible remains on landscapes, and evidence of what their occupants cultivated, gathered, hunted, bred, and ate is also often preserved. It is on the basis of site types and associated remains of plants and animals that archaeologists make provisional identifications of subsistence adaptations, which are often subsumed under such overly broad categories as “hunter-gatherer” or “farmer.” Archaeologists are interested in the closely interrelated matters of subsistence and settlement for many reasons.