Uncovering Cooperation in Housepit 54, Bridge River, British Columbia, Canada

There is a significant amount of literature regarding the theory of cooperation, as well as ethnographies and data from modern populations that clearly show cooperation, yet it is difficult to tease that information out of the archaeological record. My thesis will focus on floors IIi to IIc of Bridge River’s Housepit 54 in British Columbia, Canada, which extends from the Bridge River 2 period to the Bridge River 3 period and includes two incidents of resource stress and one of resource plenty. These times of fluctuating resource availability should result in the population utilizing different approaches to social organization. By examining different measures of wealth and privatization, it may be possible to determine the level and mechanisms of cooperation the ancestors of the modern St’át’imc Nation engaged in at different times in the village’s history. If successful, this method could be used in other areas of the world to similarly determine when cooperation was a beneficial strategy and which mechanism was the most useful