Environmental Imperatives Reconsidered

Terry L. Jones, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo
Gary M. Brown, Cultural Resource Management, Inc.
L. Mark Raab, California State University - Northridge
Janet L. McVickar, National Park Service
W. Geoffrey Spaulding, Dames and Moore
Douglas J. Kennett, California State University - Long Beach
Andrew York, KEA Environmental
Phillip L. Walker, University of California - Santa Barbara

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Also available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/200002

Abstract

Review of late Holocene paleoenvironmental and cultural sequences from four regions of western North America shows striking correlations between drought and changes in subsistence, population, exchange, health, and interpersonal violence during the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (a.d. 800–1350). While ultimate causality is difficult to identify in the archaeological record, synchrony of the environmental and cultural changes and the negative character of many human responses—increased interpersonal violence, deterioration of long-distance exchange relationships, and regional abandonments—suggest widespread demographic crises caused by decreased environmental productivity. The medieval droughts occurred at a unique juncture in the demographic history of western North America when unusually large populations of both hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists had evolved highly intensified economies that put them in unprecedented ecological jeopardy. Long-term patterns in the archaeological record are inconsistent with the predicted outcomes of simple adaptation or continuous economic intensification, suggesting that in this instance environmental dynamics played a major role in cultural transformations across a wide expanse of western North America among groups with diverse subsistence strategies. These events suggest that environment should not be overlooked as a potential cause of prehistoric culture change.