The Neolithic Demographic Transition in the U.S. Southwest

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7602200
AutoresT A Kohler (0000-0002-3414-6660, Crow Canyon Archaeological Center), Matt Pier Glaude (Washington State University), Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel, Jean‐pierre Bocquet‐appel (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Brian M Kemp (0000-0003-3945-3392, Washington State University)
Año2008
Volumen73
Número4
Páginas645-669
Fecha de publicación2008-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAmerican Antiquity (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-7316 • E-ISSN: 2325-5064
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s000273160004734x
OpenAlexW2274392633
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas60
Referencias citadas62

Maize agriculture was practiced in the U.S. Southwest slightly before 2000 B.C., but had a negligible impact on population growth rates until the development or introduction of more productive landraces; the ability to successfully cultivate maize under a greater variety of conditions, with dry farming especially important; the addition of beans, squash, and eventually turkey to the diet; increased sedentism; and what we infer to be the remapping of exchange networks and the development of efficient exchange strategies in first-millenium-A.D. villages. Our estimates of birthrates and growth rates are derived from the proportions of immature individuals among human remains. These proportions are somewhat affected by warfare in our region, and perhaps also by climate. Nevertheless, there is a strong identifiable Neolithic Demographic Transition signal in the U.S. Southwest in about the mid-first-millennium A.D. in most subregions, visible a few hundred years after the introduction of well-fired ceramic containers, and more or less contemporaneous with the first appearance of villages. Independent genetic data derived from the mitochondrial genomes of present-day indigenous populations of the Southwest are also consistent with the hypothesis that a major demographic expansion occurred 1,500-2000 years ago in the Southwest

Agriculture · Archaeology · Biology · Domestication · Geography · Indigenous · Population · Population growth · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Demography · Ecology · Forensic and Genetic Research · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies