Recent and Paleoindian Environments of the Southern High Plains

Abstract

To this point, this study has presented a hypothesis about the relationship between variation in ungulate adaptations and variation in human organization and has tested this hypothesis on the basis of the recent bison-hunting groups on the Great Plains. The following chapters turn to one specific portion of the Plains— the Southern High Plains of west Texas and eastern New Mexico—to consider the relationship between changing ungulate adaptations and human organization during the Paleoindian Period (12,000 to 8000 b. p.) in light of this hypothesis. This chapter first describes the modern environment of this portion of the Plains, emphasizing those aspects of the environment that are particularly relevant to the issues that are important to the present study. Chapter 5 describes the modern climate of the region, and this discussion is not repeated here. This chapter then summarizes the data on climatic and other environmental conditions during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene and discusses the implications of these condi-tions for ungulate, particularly bison, populations in the region.