Medieval Climatic Anomaly and Punctuated Cultural Evolution in Coastal Southern California

Culleton

Climate Change and Cultural Dynamics

et al. 2007

Available climate records in western North America (7000-3800 cal yr BP) indicate a severe dry interval between 6300 and 4800 cal yr BP embedded within a generally warm and dry Middle Holocene. Dry conditions in western North America between 6300 and 4800 cal yr BP correlate with cold to moderate sea-surface temperatures (SST) and relatively high-marine productivity along the Southern California Coast evident in Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Core 893A/B (Santa Barbara Basin). Based on archeological, linguistic, and genetic data, we argue for a movement of Uto-Aztecan people from western desert environments to the Southern California Coast, including the southern Channel Islands, and into portions of the Central Valley by at least 5500-4500 cal yr BP. We hypothesize that population dispersal from the desert interior was primarily in response to severe and prolonged drought and that people moved selectively to coastal and aquatic habitats because of the ameliorated effects of drought and their overall productivity.

Section: Associated Terrestrial Climate Changesmentioning

confidence: 92%

Middle Holocene climate change and human population dispersal in western North America

Culleton

Climate Change and Cultural Dynamics

et al. 2007

Quaternary International

“…With this proposal, Arnold broke from previous characterizations of human response to environmental problems of the Medieval era by identifying positive developments (e.g., increased bead production and emergent sociopolitical complexity) as opposed to strictly negative ones. While the paleoenvironmental premises underlying her model were ultimately found to be faulty (see Raab and Larson, 1997;Kennett and Kennett, 2000;Kennett, 2005), Arnold identified a strong pattern in the Island archaeological record that runs counter to previous characterizations of exchange trends during the Medieval Period. While the earlier proposals were susceptible to the charge of environmental determinism (positing an inevitable crisislike response to drought), Arnold's model suggested that environmental flux could prompt changes of varied character.…”

Section: Land Versus Sea and The Problem Of Environmental Determinismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using osteological data collected by Lambert and Walker from the Santa Barbara Channel (Walker, 1989;Walker and Lambert, 1989;Lambert and Walker, 1991;Lambert, 1993), Raab and Larson (1997) argued that peaks in cribra orbitalia, periosteal lesions (caused by infectious diseases), and cranial fractures (caused by inter-group conflict) were evident during the MCA as a result of the types of social crises that Moratto et al (1978) proposed earlier. While data supporting this argument were fairly compelling, it must also be recognized that chronological resolution was far from perfect and that peaks in violence and poor health were ascribed to a broad period between ca.…”

Section: Health and Violence: Osteological Signs Of Crisismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Correlations between the Medieval droughts, health problems, and violence were significant components of ideas put forth in the 1990s about the effects of the MCA on California's Native people (Fischman, 1996;Raab and Larson, 1997). Using osteological data collected by Lambert and Walker from the Santa Barbara Channel (Walker, 1989;Walker and Lambert, 1989;Lambert and Walker, 1991;Lambert, 1993), Raab and Larson (1997) argued that peaks in cribra orbitalia, periosteal lesions (caused by infectious diseases), and cranial fractures (caused by inter-group conflict) were evident during the MCA as a result of the types of social crises that Moratto et al (1978) proposed earlier.…”

Section: Health and Violence: Osteological Signs Of Crisismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A.D. 1250 was caused by movements of people in response to drought. Subsequently, drought-related problems were detected on the islands and mainland of southern California (Fischman, 1996;Raab and Larson, 1997), and a broad, systematic review produced signs of varied responses to drought across much of southwestern North America, including the Sierra Nevada, the Great Basin, the Mojave Desert, and the Colorado Plateau . This widespread evidence was subsequently acknowledged in extra-regional studies (e.g., Fagan, 2004) including several that compared the responses of prehistoric people to drought to those of modern societies (deMenocal, 2001;Cook et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Archaeological perspectives on the effects of medieval drought in prehistoric California

Jones

Schwitalla

2008

Inspired by Stine's [1994. Extreme and persistent drought in California and Patagonia during Mediaeval Time. Nature 369, 546-549.] findings from Mono Lake and Graumlich's [1993. A 1000-year record of temperature and precipitation in the Sierra Nevada. Quaternary Research 39, 249-255.] tree-ring study from the southern Sierra Nevada, California archaeologists have for over a decade been investigating the possibility that prehistoric societies were noticeably impacted by severe droughts during the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (MCA; cal A.D. 800-1350). Decreased production at obsidian sources, dramatic increases in bead production, trade, and sociopolitical complexity in the Channel Islands, and subsistence changes on the central coast were among the trends attributed to drought-related demographic stress by researchers in the 1990s. Review of more recent archaeological research shows that as the search for signs of unusual cultural changes during the MCA has broadened, some of these early patterns (e.g. violence and health problems) have been found to be more complicated and regionally varied than previously thought while others (e.g., settlement disruption, deterioration of long distance trade, and population movements) have been further corroborated.

American J Phys Anthropol

Risk Minimization and a Late Holocene Increase in Mobility at Roonka Flat, South Australia: An Analysis of Lower Limb Bone Diaphyseal Shape

Hill

Durband

Walshe

2016

These data are consistent with the risk minimization model, indicating that South Australians became more mobile post-ENSO to better exploit a less productive environment by expanding their foraging radii. The temporal shift toward more elliptical diaphyses is more notable in females than males, which is consistent with Aboriginal ethnographies that show both sexes being intensely involved in hunting and capturing game animals. Am J Phys Anthropol 161:94-103, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.