Business Professor Wins International Recognition

July 17, 2012 - Bustling commercial trade, entrepreneurial activity and made- to-order carved tools were features of the Paleoindian communities of North America more than 10,000 years ago, according to a research paper by Laurentian University Professor of Commerce Jean-Charles Cachon.

The paper,“Paleo Aboriginal Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Turtle Island,” received the Best Paper Award in the Indigenous Entrepreneurship category at the World Conference of the International Council for Small Business in Wellington, New Zealand last month. It will be published in an Australian scholarly journal later this year.

The paper assembles a body of archaeological evidence of “wide-ranging indigenous societies capable of creative innovation, trade and successful long-term development.” It also highlights the diverse products that were designed, used and branded by Paleoindian peoples, such as the fluted projectile point, which Professor Cachon calls “the first known Indigenous North American innovation.”

“The fluted point technology is what allowed people from that civilization to harvest giant mammals. The reality is that for the first thousand years, the Paleoindians were faced with mega- fauna like mammoths and mastodons, so they needed to develop these spear-heads, expertly carved with a groove so they could be fitted tightly to a long pole,” said Professor Cachon.

Paleoindians were sophisticated artisans, said Professor Cachon, and the archaeological record shows that stone tools were sometimes made-to-order. “The crafter would almost complete the carving, and then bring it to the client, and finish it up in the presence of the user. People might want it finished in a particular way, according to their grip,” he said.

Drawing on the support of Laurentian colleagues Dr. Patrick Julig and Dr. Kathryn Molohon of the Department of Anthropology, Professor Cachon reviewed archaeological literature through the lens of commerce and entrepreneurship. A professor of Commerce at Laurentian for nearly 30 years, Cachon has a long and extensive interest in indigenous culture and learning. He has developed courses for Aboriginal students in the Faculty of Management since 2006, and also taught the first two Commerce courses in the University’s Dual Credit Program, funded by the Martin Aboriginal Initiative (http://mai-iam.ca).“Presenting this information to indigenous students has a profound impact in terms of their pride and motivation,” said Professor Cachon. “It must be proclaimed that commercial activities and trade are not Western concepts or a form of oppression; these are activities that were innate in the earliest Indigenous societies.”

“Professor Cachon’s work has shed a new light on the vitality of our indigenous cultures,” said Dr. Sheila Cote-Meek, Associate Vice-President, Indigenous Programs. “This paper reminds us of the lives and the entrepreneurial activity that flourished here in ancient times.”

The paper is to be published in the Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues, based at Monash University in Melbourne.