Climatic change and early population dynamics in the Southwestern United States

Abstract

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the pattern of early human occupation of the Southwestern United States was strongly influenced by the major paleoclimatic events of the period 9500 B.C. to A.D. 700. The size of human populations and the distribution of human settlement at both the regional-topographic and large-scale areal level, known from archaeological research, are directly correlated to climatic change documented by the evidence of geology and palynology.The effect of climatic change is felt through the actions and reactions of the economic subsystem and its linkages with other subsystems. These reactions reflect not only the character of the climatic stimulus but also the existing state of the cultural system. Alternate reactions include direct systemic readaptation to the changed environment (through changed technologies, methods of population control, etc.); or small scale or large scale relocation of populations in different local niches, regions, or areas whose character most closely approximates the conditions to which the cultural system was initially adapted.