Environmental Change And Human Adaptation in the Ancient American Southwest

by Doyel, David E.; Dean, Jeffrey S.; Betancourt, Julio L. (CON); Creel, Darrell (CON); Espenak, Fred (CON)

• ISBN13: 9780874808537
• ISBN10: 0874808537
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-11-06
• Publisher: Univ of Utah Pr

Summary

Archaeology provides an ideal avenue for examining long-term processes and interrelationships between human behavior and environmental stability, variation, and change. The American Southwest is particularly well suited for such 'deep-time' investigations because of its comprehensive archaeological record, rich ethnographic and historical data on its peoples, and unmatched reconstructions of multiple environmental variables across a broad range of spatial and temporal scales. This volume contains a varied and instructive set of studies of human behavioral adaptation to environmental change in the ancient Southwest. It makes significant contributions to southwestern prehistory, settlement pattern studies, agriculture, behavioral ecology, paleo-environmental reconstruction, and statistical and computer-aided modeling. The mix of case studies and syntheses covers the Colorado Plateau, Sonoran Desert, Mogollon Highlands, and Rio Grande Valley and summarizes the work of some of the leading researchers in the region.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	ix
List of Tables	xiii
Preface	xv
Culture, Environment, and Adaptation: Perspectives from the Ancient Southwest	1	(9)
Jeffrey S. Dean
David E. Doyel
Early People, Early Maize, and Late Archaic Ecology in the Southwest	10	(16)
Alan H. Simmons
Prehistoric Human Response to Landscape Change in the American Southwest	26	(20)
Michael R. Waters
Cross-cultural Perspectives on Prehispanic Hohokam Agricultural Potential	46	(23)
Suzanne K. Fish
Paul R. Fish
Long-Term Streamflow Reconstructions, River Channel Morphology, and Aboriginal Irrigation Systems along the Salt and Gila Rivers	69	(55)
Donald A. Graybill
David A. Gregory
Gary S. Funkhouser
Fred L. Nials
Subsistence Management Strategies in the Grasshopper Region, East-Central Arizona	124	(12)
J. Jefferson Reid
Donald A. Graybill
Ann Clair Seiferle-Valencia
Settlement History and Environmental Variability in the Upper Little Colorado River Valley, Arizona	136	(24)
David E. Doyel
Subsistence Stress and Food Storage at Kiet Siel, Northeastern Arizona	160	(20)
Jeffrey S. Dean
The Effects of Environmental Fluctuations on Ancient Livelihoods: Implications of Paleoeconomic Evidence from the Upper Basin, Northern Arizona	180	(24)
Alan P. Sullivan III
Anthony H. Ruter
Environmental Variation and Prehistoric Culture in the Mimbres Area, Southwestern New Mexico	204	(10)
Darrell Creel
Tree Rings, Drought, and the Pueblo Abandonment of South-Central New Mexico in the 1670s	214	(14)
James A. Parks
Jeffrey S. Dean
Julio L. Betancourt
Sky as Environment: Solar Eclipses and Hohokam Culture Change	228	(53)
W. Bruce Masse
Fred Espenak
The Resurgence of the Co-evolution of Human and Natural Landscape Studies in the American Southwest	281	(8)
George J. Gumerman
References	289	(48)
Contributors	337	(2)
Index	339