precontact
1
8.6
- noun
- /priːˈkɒntækt/
- Specialized
- In addition to understanding the present Cherokee Nation as a historically specific entity in relation to the historically specific political organization that Dunaway describes as the precontact Cherokee, it is also important to understand that the claims of much of the hegemonic scholarship impinge on the renewed debate over the existence of precontact writing in the Americas.
- precontact settlement
- precontact settlement patterns
- precontact cultural
Examples
-
Bell, following Leacock (1978), suggests that women enjoyed relative autonomy in precontact situations and that their roles had been undermined by the rise of the state.
Academic text (1992) -
Otherwise, the estimates are for the date of initial information, and there is no attempt to project to precontact conditions.
Academic text (1996) -
Band settlement patterns during the early reservation years were similar to those in the precontact period.
Academic text (1990) -
More recent and more honest studies estimate the precontact civilization to have been between nine and eighteen million.
Academic text (2000) -
However, intensive studies of precontact practices are lacking.
Academic text (2017) -
Sawiyano talk as if the game provided a great part of their precontact diet.
Academic text (1992) -
The archaeological record and early ethnographic accounts suggest precontact fish consumption at roughly five hundred pounds per adult per year.
Academic text (2012) -
According to MacDonald, precontact Iroquoians built steam lodge structures both above ground and as semisubterranean structures.
Academic text (2017) -
Precontact settlement patterns were typified by stream locations and proximal residence to maximize resource utilization and efficiency.
Academic text (1990) -
The artifacts recovered from the excavation provide insight into the daily life of people during the precontact era.
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
precontact = precontact (semi-transparent) = pre + contact
The noun use is understandable as an ellipted or converted form of the adjective, but using it to mean a historical period is somewhat specialized.
Etymology
Precontact comes from pre- 'before' and contact 'meeting', as in 'make contact'. As a noun, it means the period before different peoples or cultures first met, which is why historians and archaeologists use it for that earlier time.