Risk, Climatic Variability, and the Study of Southwestern Prehistory
An Evolutionary Perspective
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7603335 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daniel O Larson (California State University, Long Beach), Hector Neff (0000-0002-2792-716X, University of Missouri), Donald A Graybill (University of Arizona), Joel Michaelsen (University of California, Santa Barbara), Elizabeth Ambos (0000-0001-9202-4322, California State University, Long Beach) |
| Year | 1996 |
| Volume | 61 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 217-241 |
| Publication date | 1996-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Antiquity (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-7316 • E-ISSN: 2325-5064 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/282419 |
| OpenAlex | W2312909075 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 43 |
| References cited | 59 |
Two recent developments in southwestern archaeology are brought together in this paper. First, theoreticians have begun to argue that the archaeological record should be viewed as the product of selection-driven evolution. Second, tree-ring research has produced a highly detailed history of climate for a large area of the northern Southwest. We view the record of climatic oscillations and extreme events as a record of the strength of selection favoring stabilization of specialized agricultural strategies in the arid northern Southwest. Published data from Black Mesa provide a cultural record of sufficient precision to permit comparison with the climatic record, while new data from Vermillion Cliffs, southern Utah, document one local end-product of an evolutionary sequence shaped to an important degree by the long-term variability of climate. Anasazi occupation of many regions failed to persist through the “Great Drought” of the 1270s. From a local perspective, this extreme climatic event caused adaptations shaped by selection prior to the 1270s to fail; from a broader temporal-spatial perspective, however, the drought must be seen as part of the selective regime that shaped subsequent human adaptation to the northern Southwest
Archaeology · Biology · Climate change · Geography · Perspective (graphical) · Physical geography · Prehistory · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Ecology · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · History · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
The Interaction of Climate Change and Agency in the Collapse of Civilizations ca. 2300–2000 BC
Late Holocene Sea Temperatures along the Central California Coast
Episodic Late Holocene dune movements on the sand-sheet area, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, San Luis Valley, Colorado, USA
Nothing Lasts Forever
El Viejo Y El Mar
Lithics in the land of the lightning brothers
Archaeological Tree-Ring Dating at the Millennium
Stress as an Aspect of Environmental Studies
Environmental Archaeology Through Tree Rings
Soundscapes in the past
Stress as an Aspect of Environmental Studies
The Role of Functional Efficiency in the Decline of North America’s Copper Culture (8000–3000 BP)
Compositional Characterization of Prehistoric Ceramics
The Contest between the Ipiutak, Old Bering Sea, and Birnirk Polities and the Origin of Whaling during the First Millennium A.D. along Bering Strait
Population, Culture History, and the Dynamics of Culture Change
Lithics in the Land of the Lightning Brothers
Thoughts on new approaches to combining the archaeological and historical records
Craft economies in the north American Southwest
Cross-Cultural Implications for Ancestral Puebloan Agriculture in the Mojave Desert
On Evolutionary Ecology, Selectionist Archaeology, and Behavioral Archaeology
Winter Hunger, Winter Myths
Robustness assessment of the ‘cooperation under resource pressure’ (Curp) model
An evolutionary model of social change in the Middle Ohio Valley
Bet-hedging strategies, agricultural change, and unpredictable environments
Archaeological investigation of trade and exchange
We Have Met the Selectionist and It Is Us
Paleoenvironmental reconstruction using stable isotopes and trace elements from archaeological freshwater bivalve shell fragments in Northwest Patagonia, Argentina
The Evolution of Anasazi Ceramic Production and Distribution
The Interaction of Climate Change and Agency in the Collapse of Civilizations ca. 2300–2000 BC
Changes in the Sources of Olivine-Tempered Ceramics and Social Interaction Patterns in the Virgin Branch Region
Virgin Anasazi Diet as Demonstrated Through the Analysis of Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopes
Process, perception, and practice
Scale of Analysis and Zooarchaeological Interpretation
Exchange System Patterns in Bam, Southeastern Iran, after the Earthquake (December 2003)
Environmental Imperatives Reconsidered
Methodology of Comparison in Evolutionary Archaeology
Technology, Flaked Stone Technology, and Risk
The Depopulation of Sand Canyon Pueblo, A Large Ancestral Pueblo Village in Southwestern Colorado
Medieval Climatic Anomaly and Punctuated Cultural Evolution in Coastal Southern California
Setting Theoretical Egos Aside
Gender, Technology, and Evolution
Evidence and Metaphor in Evolutionary Archaeology
Evolutionary Theory and the Historical Development of Dry-Land Agriculture in North Kohala, Hawai'i
Health and disease in the prehistoric Southwest
The Anasazi in a changing environment
Archaeological Method and Theory
Time, space, and transition in Anasazi prehistory
The Sociopolitical Structure of Prehistoric Southwestern Societies
Foraging and Farming
Bad Year Economics
The Colorado Plateaus: Cultural Dynamics and Paleoenvironment
Aspects of the application of evolutionary theory in archaeology
The Origins of Agriculture
The origins of agriculture
Social adaptation to food stress
Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory
Evolutionary Archaeology
Evolutionary Theory and Archaeology
Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior
The Nature of Selection
The population ecology of hunter-gatherers and their prey
Environmental analysis in human evolution and adaptation research
Diet choice, risk, and food sharing in a stochastic environment
Ecological stability and community diversity during mormon colonization of the Little Colorado River Basin
Evolutionary implications of design and performance characteristics of prehistoric pottery
Advances in world archaeology
Population Growth, Agricultural Intensification, and Culture Change among the Virgin Branch Anasazi, Nevada
Chronology Construction and the Study of Prehistoric Culture Change
The Evolution of Anasazi Ceramic Production and Distribution
Obscuring Cultural Patterns in the Archaeological Record
Impacts of Climatic Variabiity and Population Growth on Virgin Branch Anasazi Cultural Developments
The Evolution of Political Systems
Trends in Western Anasazi Archaeology
California Climatic Reconstructions
Trade and Its Origins on the Botletli River, Botswana
Population Aggregation in the Prehistoric American Southwest
Theory, Sampling, and Analytical Techniques in the Archaeological Study of Prehistoric Ceramics
Resource Specialization, Population Growth, and Agricultural Production in the American Southwest
Human Behavior, Demography, and Paleoenvironment on the Colorado Plateaus
Coping with Risk
Evolution of 'Tribal' Social Networks
Social Differentiation and Leadership Development in Early Pithouse Villages in the Mogollon Region of the American Southwest
Escaping the Confines of Normative Thought
Style and Function
Seriation Method and Its Evaluation
The Role of Adaptation in Archaeological Explanation
Missionization among the Coastal Chumash of Central California
Archeology as Long-Term Ethnography
Advances in Evolutionary Culture Theory
Elements of an inclusive evolutionary model for archaeology
| Unique citing works | 43 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,48 |
| Citation span | 1997 - 2025 (29) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 38 |