Scaling up and hunkering down: The evolution of Beothuk houses and households

Abstract

We examine two concurrent trends in the later history of the Beothuk: changes to domestic architecture and household composition, and the narrowing of sharing obligations. The former is evident in the emergence and growth of pithouses and households, and the latter, in the partitioning of resources and the elaboration of food storage strategies. Both occur as European settlement and hostilities intensify and the Beothuk are denied access to coastal resources. These shifts may be reflective of social strategies aimed at incorporating extended family members and others from shattered homes, as well as cultural adjustments to increased sedentism and structural changes in the subsistence economy. These developments illustrate how hunter-gatherer domestic architecture can track with changes to the social environment.