Recent archaeological studies of the Cis-Baikal describe the region’s Middle Holocene prehistory in terms of two broad culture-historic units – the «pre-hiatus» and «post-hiatus» periods (approx. 8000–7000 cal BP and 6000–4000 cal BP, respectively). In this paper I discuss the implications of the «post-hiatus» construct for the study of Southern Siberia’s prehistoric forager inhabitants, and suggest that while this monolithic grouping enabled archaeologists to make highly productive comparisons between chronologically discontinuous populations, it has also fostered the development of an ahistoric and antiindividualistic approach to cultural change in Western scholarship on the region.

Arnold J. E. Organizational transformations: Power and labor among complex huntergatherers and other intermediate societies / J. E. Arnold // Emergent Complexity: The Evolution of Intermediate Societies / ed. International Monographs in Prehistory, Ann Arbor. – MI., 1996. – P. 59–73.

Binford L. Mortuary practices: their study and their potential / L. Binford // In Approaches to the Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology. – Washington, 1971. – № 25. – P. 6–29.

Brumfiel E. M. Distinguished Lecture in Archeology: Breaking and Entering the Ecosystem – Gender, Class, and Faction Steal the Show / E. M. Brumfiel // American Anthropologist. New Series. – 1992. – № 94 (3). – P. 551–567.

Carr C. Mortuary Practices: Their Social, Philosophical-Religious, Circumstantial, Physical Determinants / C. Carr // Journal of Anthropological Method and Theory. – 1995. – № 2 (2). – P. 105–200.

Agency in Archaeology / ed. M. Dobres, J. E. Robb. – London : Routledge, 2000. Earle T. How Chiefs Come to Power: the political economy in prehistory / T. Earle. – Stanford : Stanford University Press, 1997.

Gillespie S. Personhood, Agency, and Mortuary Ritual: A Case Study from the Ancient Maya / S. Gillespie // Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. – 2001. – № 20. – P. 73–112.

Goldstein L. G. One-dimensional archaeology and multidimensional people: spatial organization and mortuary analysis / L. G. Goldstein // The archaeology of death / ed. R. Chapman, I. Kinnes, K. Randsborg. – 1981. – P. 53–69.

Hunter-gatherer mobility strategies and resource use based on strontium isotope (87Sr/86Sr) analysis: a case study from Middle Holocene Lake Baikal, Siberia / C. Haverkort, A. Weber, M. A. atzenberg, O. I. Goriunova, A. Simonetti, R. Creaser // Journal of Archaeological Science. – 2008. – № 35. – P. 1265–1280.

Haverkort C. M. Identifying hunter-gatherer mobility patterns using strontium isotopes / C. M. Haverkort, V. I. Bazaliiskii, N. A. Savel’ev // Prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the Baikal region, Siberia: bioarchaeological studies of past life ways / ed. Andrzej W. Weber, M. Anne Katzenberg, Theodore G. Schurr. – Philadelphia, 2010. – P. 217–238.

Hayden B. Competition, labor, and complex hunter-gatherers / B. Hayden // Key Issues in Hunter-Gatherer Research // ed. E. Burch, L. Ellanna. – N. Y., 1994. – P. 223–239.

Hayden B. Funerals as Feasts: Why Are They So Important? / B. Hayden // Cambridge Archaeological Journal. – 2009. – № 19 (1). – P. 29–52.

Komarova M. N. Mogil’niki bukhty Ulan-Khada / M. N. Komarova, I. A. Sher // Drevnosti Baikala / ed. V. M. Masson. – Irkutsk, 1992. – P. 32–41.

Dental health indicators of hunter-gatherer adaptation and cultural change in Siberia’s Cis-Baikal / A. Lieverse, D. W. Link, V. I. Bazaliiskiy, O. I. Goriunova, A. W. Weber // American Journal of Physical Anthropology. – 2007. – № 134. – P. 323–339.

Upper limb musculoskeletal stress markers among Middle Holocene foragers of Siberia’s Cis-Baikal region / A. Lieverse, V. I. Bazaliiskii, O. I. Goriunova, A. W. Weber // American Journal of Physical Anthropology. – 2009. – № 138. – P. 458–472.

Losey R. J. Fishing ancient lake Baikal, Siberia: inferences from the reconstruction of harvested perch (perca fluviatilis) size / R. J. Losey, T. Nomokonova, O. I. Goriunova // JAS. – 2008. – № 35. – P. 577–590.

McKenzie H. G. Chapter four. Variability in Bronze Age Mortuary Practices in the Little Sea Microregion of Cis-Baikal / H. G. McKenzie // Prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the Baikal region, Siberia: Bioarchaeological studies of past life ways / ed. Andrzej W. Weber, M. Anne Katzenberg, Theodore G. Schurr. – Philadelphia, 2010. – P. 87–106.

Matrilineal affinities and prehistoric Siberian mortuary practices: a case study from Neolithic Lake Baikal / K. Mooder, A. Weber, F. Bamforth, A. Lievers, T. Schurr, V. I. Bazaliiski, N. A. Savel’ev // Journal of Archaeological Science. – 2005. – № 32. – P. 619–634.

Uncovering the Genetic Landscape of Prehistoric Cis-Baikal / K. P. Mooder, T. A. Thomson, A. W. Weber, , V. I. Bazaliiskii, , F. I. Bamforth, // Prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the Baikal region, Siberia: Bioarchaeological studies of past life ways / ed. Andrzej W. Weber, M. Anne Katzenberg, Theodore G. Schurr. – Philadelphia, 2010. – P. 107–120.

Parker Pearson M. The Archaeology of Death and Burial / Pearson M. Parker. – College Station: Texas A&M;University Press, 1999.

Genetic diversity in native Siberians: implications for the prehistoric settlement of the Cis-Baikal region / T. G. Schurr, L. P. Osipova, S. I. Zhdanov, M. C. Dulik // Prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the Baikal region, Siberia: Bioarchaeological studies of past life ways / ed. Andrzej W. Weber, M. Anne Katzenberg, Theodore G. Schurr. – Philadelphia, 2010. – P. 121–134.

Shepard B. A. Political economic reorganization among non-state societies: a case study using Middle Holocene mortuary data from the Cis-Baikal, Russia / B. A. Shepard // Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. – 2012. – № 31. – P. 365–380.

Weber A. W. The Neolithic and Early Bronze Age of the Lake Baikal Region: A Review of Recent Research / A. W. Weber // Journal of World Prehistory. – 1995. – № 9 (1). – P. 99–165.

Weber A. W. Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers of Cis-Baikal, Siberia: An overview for the new century / A. W. Weber, R. Bettinger // Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. – 2010. – № 29. – P. 491–506.

Weber A. W. Hunter-gatherer migrations, mobility and social relations: A case study from the Early Bronze Age Baikal region, Siberia / A. W. Weber, O. I. Goriunova // Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. – 2012. – (In print doi:10.1016/j.jaa).

Weber A. W. Patterns of Prehistoric Procurement of Seal at Lake Baikal: A Zooarchaeological Contribution to the Study of Past Foraging Economies in Siberia / A. W. Weber, D. W. Link // Journal of Archaeological Science. – 1998. – № 25. – P. 215–227.

Weber A. W. Hunter-gatherer culture change and continuity in the Middle Holocene of the Cis-Baikal, Siberia / A. W. Weber, D. W. Link, M. A. Katzenberg // Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. – 2002. – № 21. – P. 230–299.

Weber A. W. Radiocarbon dating of Middle Holocene Culture History in Cis-Baikal / A. W. Weber, H. G. McKenzie, R. Beukens // Prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the Baikal region, Siberia: bioarchaeological studies of past life ways / ed. Andrzej W. Weber, M. Anne Katzenberg, Theodore G. Schurr. – Philadelphia, 2010. – P. 27–50.

Radiocarbon dates from Neolithic and Bronze Age hunter–gatherer cemeteries in the Cis-Baikal region of Siberia / A. Weber, R. Beukens, V. I. Bazaliiskii, O. I. Goriunova, N. A. Savel’ev // Radiocarbon. – 2006. – № 48 (1) – P. 127–166.

Wesson C. B. Households and Hegemony: Early Creek Prestige Goods, Symbolic Capital,and Social Power / C. B. Wesson. – Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press. – 2008.