Human Behavior, Demography, and Paleoenvironment on the Colorado Plateaus

Abstract

Archaeological and paleoenvironmental data are integrated in an investigation of culture change among the Anasazi of the American Southwest by a conceptual model of the interaction among environment, population, and behavior, the major determinants of human adaptive systems. Geological, palynological, and dendrochronological reconstructions of low and high frequency environmental variability coupled with population trends are used to specify periods of regional population-resource stress that should have elicited behavioral responses. Examination of these periods elucidates the range of responses employed and clarifies the adaptive contributions of mobility, shift of settlement location, subsistence mix, exchange, ceremonialism, agricultural intensification, and territoriality. These results help differentiate responses that are triggered by environmental variability from those stimulated primarily by demographic or sociocultural factors. These analyses also demonstrate the adaptive importance of amplitude, frequency, temporal, spatial, and durational aspects of environmental variability compared to the commonly invoked but simplistic contrast between “favorable” and “unfavorable” conditions.

Risk, Cooperation and the Economic Origins of Social Trust: An Empirical Investigation

“…For example, cases of inter-community exchange, and geographically diversified mutual insurance arrangements are well-documented in the historical, anthropological and economic literature (Kirkby, 1974;Dean et al, 1985;Halstead and O'Shea, 1989;Platteau, 2000). However, the creation and maintenance of socio-economic connections over larger areas would have entailed higher costs since incentive and information problems would be more severe among geographically distant individuals.…”

Anasazi (Pre-Columbian Native-American) Migrations During The Middle-12Th and Late-13th Centuries – Were they Drought Induced?

“…This is consistent with the tree-ring study of Fritts et al (1965) who found that the Great Drought was associated with reduced winter and summer precipitation and elevated summer and autumn temperatures. The middle-12th and late-13th century droughts occurred after population expansions, during a time when people were living at the limit of their environmental and agricultural support systems (Dean et al, 1985;Dean, 1988). Some of the droughts Figure 10.…”

Population growth and collapse in a multiagent model of the Kayenta Anasazi in Long House Valley

“…Its bounded topography combined with the rich paleoenvironmental record permits the creation in the computer of a dynamic resource landscape that accurately replicates actual conditions in the valley from A.D. 200 to 1500. Low-and high-frequency variations in alluvial hydrologic and depositional conditions, effective moisture, and climate have been reconstructed in unprecedented detail with dendroclimatology, surficial geomorphology, palynology, and archaeology (11)(12). High-frequency climatic variability is represented by annual June Palmer Drought Severity Indices (PDSI), which reflect the effects of meteorological drought (moisture and temperature) on crop production (13).…”