Willow smoke, dogs tails and albino deer

The year I was born Lewis Binford, the so-called 'father' of New or Processual archaeology, wrote a seminal piece of archaeological literature outlining the differences between 'forager' and 'collector' hunter-gatherer groups. It talked about 'affluent societies', logistical strategies and settlement systems.

If you arent an archaeologist you are dying of boredom about now.

Anyway, in his 'Willow Smoke and Dogs' Tails: Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems and Archaeological Site Formation' (1980) he included the following excerpt which always stayed with me:

"An old Eskimo man was asked how he would summarize his life; he thought for a moment and said, "Willow smoke and dogs' tails; when we camp it's all willow smoke, and when we move all you see is dogs' tails wagging in front of you. Eskimo life is half of each."

On a related, but unrelated note:

I came across these pictures on the web today as I was looking for pictures of white-tail deer to include in a Powerpoint (power point! power point!) presentation. I nearly died of cuteness overload. Albino deer (and a baby!). Makes me wonder if this is what people saw that made them think unicorns existed. An antler could easily be mistaken for a horn.