Introduction

Archaeology as anthropology: this is a hallowed academic relationship in North America, and it has become increasingly important in many other parts of the world. The theoretical propositions are intended to show the driving forces behind the different themes in Northern Athapaskan social and economic organization. Northern Athapaskan societies are also found in the relatively harsh environment of the North American Subarctic; that environment has long been thought to have had a determinant effect upon those societies. Athapaskan prehistory occurs on a sufficient scale across western North America to have been of great interest in its own right. One means of approaching the question would be to census the empirical variability in local group size found within and between Northern Athapaskan societies. The investigator could record the range in numbers of persons, mean local group size, standard deviation in local group size, and so on, for a sample of local groups from different Northern Athapaskan societies.