Archaeologists have not readily applied collective action and institutional approaches to the study of hunter-gatherers. This is especially true of the American Southeast. Here, I use a review of the recent literature to illustrate the value of such approaches to understanding long-term histories. This review of hunter-gatherer archaeology spans the entire temporal range of Native American history in the Southeast. I argue that the term “hunter-gatherers” itself is constraining. In its place, I suggest that a focus on institutional change and collective action provides a way to better connect histories across temporal units, which then allows for a greater understanding of how such traditions developed, were maintained (or abandoned), and reinvented over the course of history. At the end of the review, I pose five key research areas that archaeologists should focus on that speak to institutions, the nature of public and private goods, common pool resources, and collective action regarding large-scale labor projects.

考古学家尚未轻易地将集体行动和制度方法应用于狩猎采集者的研究。美国东南部地区尤其如此。在这里，我通过对最近文献的回顾来说明这种方法对于理解长期历史的价值。这篇对狩猎采集考古学的回顾跨越了东南部美洲原住民历史的整个时间范围。我认为“狩猎采集者”这个词本身就有限制。取而代之的是，我建议关注制度变革和集体行动，提供了一种更好地连接跨时间单位的历史的方法，从而可以更好地理解这些传统是如何在历史上发展、维持（或放弃）和重塑的。历史的进程。在评论的最后，我提出了考古学家应该关注的五个关键研究领域，这些领域涉及机构、公共和私人物品的性质、公共资源以及有关大型劳工项目的集体行动。