Andrew Martindale

  • Associate Professor
  • Adjunct Associate Professor (McMaster)
  • andrew.martindale(at)ubc.ca
  • (604) 822-2545 (AnSo 1208)
  • Ph.D. University of Toronto, 1999

Research Interests

I am an anthropological archaeologist whose research and teaching expertise has focused on the Northwest Coast and includes the history and archaeology of complex hunter-gatherers of western North America, the archaeology and ethnohistory of cultural contact and colonialism, space-syntax analysis of architecture and households, and the use of indigenous oral records in archaeology.

Thinking of using me as a reference? No problem, check out this handy info page: Reference Letters

Lab Nights

I organize a weekly laboratory session for faculty, grad students, and undergraduates during the fall term. In 2010, Lab Nights will be held on Tuesdays of the fall term in the Charles Borden Laboratory in MOA 214 from 5 to 8 pm. If you want to join, you will need to send me an email with your name and student number so that I can add you to the Security List. Follow this link for more information.

Research Projects

My recent research project explored cultural change among the Tsimshian people of northwestern Canada during the contact era (after A.D. 1787). Initially using a neo-Marxist approach, I demonstrated that change in post-contact Tsimshian culture was a function of the integration of the European market economy into traditional social relations of subsistence economics. However, I argued that while economic principles influence the changing course of history in fundamental ways, they are not the sole criteria upon which we can define the effect of colonialism on indigenous cultural identities. In my most recent work I try to go beyond the structural dynamics of economy and focus upon the agency of individual Tsimshian people as they used material culture to forge new, complicated identities in response to European influences.

My current research is a multi-disciplinary study of the Dundas Islands, an offshore cluster that has evidence of over 11,000 years of occupation. The research team includes David Archer (NWCC), Susan Marsden (MNBC), Duncan McLaren (UVic), graduate students from UBC, McMaster, and UWO in collaboration with Tsimshian students, friends, and Elders. Our goals are to describe in detail the complicated history of the islands with a focus on 1) the Early Holocene, and 2) points of conjunction between the archaeological and Tsimshian oral records (adawx). Follow this link to our project webpage.

Data and Resources

This page lists some MS Excel templates for basic archaeological calculations as well as a database BC plant food seeds. Data and resources link.

Peer-Reviewed Publications

  • 2012 (Hallmand, Nadine, Meghan Burchell, Natalie Brewster, Andrew Martindale, and Bernd R. Schöne.). "Holocene climate and cultural changes at the Dundas Islands Group, Holocene climate and seasonality of shell collection at the Dundas Islands Group, northern British Columbia, Canada—A bivalve sclerochronological Paleo 3. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2011.12.019 ." Paleo 3.
  • In Press "Archaeology Taken to Court: Unraveling the Epistemology of Cultural Tradition in the Context of Aboriginal Title Cases” In From the Margins: The Archaeology of the Colonized and its Contribution to Global Archaeological Theory. Neal Ferris and Rodney Harrison, eds. Oxford University Press.
  • 2011 (Andrew Martindale and Bryn Letham).“Causalities and Models within the Archaeological Construction of Political Order on the Northwest Coast of North America.” In The Archaeology of Politics: the Materiality of Political Practice and Action in the Past. Peter G. Johansen and Andrew M. Bauer, eds. pp. 323-353. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press.
  • 2011 (Natalie Brewster and Andrew Martindale. "Faunal and Settlement Patterns on the Dundas Islands." In The Archaeology of North Pacific Fisheries. Madonna Moss and Aubrey Cannon, eds. pp 247-264. University of Alaska Press.
  • In Press "Thresholds of Meaning: Voice, Time, and Epistemology in the Archaeological Consideration of NW Coast Art." In The Construction of Northwest Coast Art: An Anthology. Ki-ke-in (Ron Hamilton), Jennifer Kramer, and Charlotte Townsend-Gault, eds. UBC Press.
  • 2011 (Duncan McLaren, Andrew Martindale, Daryl Fedje, and Quentin Mackie). "Relict Shorelines and Shell Middens of the Dundas Island Archipelago." Canadian Journal of Archaeology. 35:86-116.
  • 2009 (Andrew Martindale, Bryn Letham, Duncan McLaren, David Archer, Meghan Burchell, Bernd R. Schone). "Mapping of Subsurface Shell Midden Components through Percussion Coring: Examples from the Dundas Islands." Journal of Archaeological Science. 36:1565-1575.PDF
  • 2009 (Andrew Martindale and Kisha Supernant) "Quantifying the Defensiveness of Defended Sites on the Northwest Coast of North America." Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 28(2):191-204.PDF
  • 2009 "Entanglement and Tinkering: Structural History in the Archaeology of the Northern Tsimshian." Journal of Social Archaeology.PDF
  • 2006 "Methodological Issues in the Use of Tsimshian Oral Traditions (Adawx) in Archaeology." Canadian Journal of Archaeology.30(2)159-193. PDF
  • 2006 "Tsimshian Houses and Households through the Contact Period." In Household Archaeology on the Northwest Coast. E. Sobel, A. Trieu Gahr, K. M. Ames, ed. Pp.140-158. Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory. PDF
  • 2006 (Andrew Martindale and Irena Jurakic)." Identifying Expedient Glass Tools in a Post-Contact Tsimshian Village." Journal of Archaeological Science. Volume 33, Issue 3, March 2006, Pages 414-427. PDF
  • 2005 "A Method for Analyzing Vernacular Architecture: A Case Study from the Ramaditas Site," Chile. In Arqueologia del Desierto de Atacama: La Etapa Formativa en el Area de Ramaditas/Guatacondo. M. Rivera ed. pp133-173.Editorial Universidad Bolivariana Coleccion Estudios Regionales y Locales: Santiago.PDF
  • 2004 (Andrew Martindale and Irena Jurakic) "Northern Tsimshian Plant Resource Use in the Late Pre-contact to Post-contact Era." Canadian Journal of Archaeology. 28(2):254-280. PDF
  • 2003 "A Hunter-gatherer Paramount Chiefdom: Tsimshian Developments through the Contact Period." In Emerging from the Mist: Studies in Northwest Coast Culture History. R.G. Matson, G. Coupland and Q. Mackie ed. pp.12-50. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. PDF
  • 2003 (Andrew Martindale and Susan Marsden). "Defining the Middle Period (3500 BP to 1500 BP) in Tsimshian History through a Comparison of Archaeological and Oral Records." BC Studies. 138:13-50. PDF
  • 2001 (Gary Coupland, Andrew R.C. Martindale and Susan Marsden). "Does Resource Abundance Explain Local Group Rank Among the Coast Tsimshian?" In Perspectives in Northern Northwest Coast Prehistory, Mercury Series Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper 160. J. Cybulksi ed. pp.221-248. Ottawa: National Museum of Canada.
  • 2001 "Late Traditions on the Northwest Coast." Encyclopedia of Prehistory. P. Peregrine ed. Plenum Press.
  • 2000 "Archaeological Stories of the Tsimshian: Change in the context of contact." In The Entangled Past. M. Boyd, J.C. Erwin, and M. Hendrickson, ed. pp.90-97. Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary.
  • 1999 "Maritime Adaptations on the Northwest Coast." Revista de Arqueologia Americana. 10:1-42.
  • 1996 (Gray Graffam and Andrew Martindale). "The Archaeology of Spatial Order: An Examination of the Guatacondo Valley, Northern Chile." Journal of the Julian Steward Anthropology Society: Current Research in Andean Antiquity. Volume 23(1&2):229-267.

Non-Peer Reviewed Publications

  • 2009 "Race: Social Fact, Biological Fiction" Focus on Adoption.17(3):16-17.PDF

Research Reports

I have written a series of research reports, mostly on the archaeology of the Tsimshian and Musqueam territories. Contact me for a list and for permission protocols.

Etc.

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