Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Anthropology
Paleoindian Response To Climate Change In The Northern Jornada Del Muerto, Christopher W. Merriman
Paleoindian Response To Climate Change In The Northern Jornada Del Muerto, Christopher W. Merriman
Anthropology ETDs
Human-environment interaction is a long-standing and productive line of inquiry that includes the study of cultural responses to climate change. However, demonstrating a causal relationship between climate change and the consequent culture change is rarely straightforward for numerous reasons. In this dissertation I develop an optimality model to predict how Paleoindians should have responded to changes in precipitation across the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene. The water supply model (WSM) ranks water supplies much like the diet breadth model ranks food resources. To adjust the WSM for climate change, paleoclimate records from playas in the northern Jornada del Muerto were used in …
Effects Of Environmental Change On Ancestral Pueblo Fishing In The Middle Rio Grande, Jonathan W. Dombrosky Dr.
Effects Of Environmental Change On Ancestral Pueblo Fishing In The Middle Rio Grande, Jonathan W. Dombrosky Dr.
Anthropology ETDs
It has long been assumed that fishes were unimportant in the diet of past Pueblo people in the U.S. Southwest. Yet, small numbers of fish remains are consistently recovered from Late pre-Hispanic/Early Historic archaeological sites in the Middle Rio Grande of New Mexico. The end of drought conditions may have impacted food choice and fishing decisions during this time. I use behavioral ecology to understand how fishing could have been an optimal food-getting strategy for Ancestral Pueblo farmers. Stable isotope analysis offers a way to account for environmental change. I provide a refined 13C Suess correction model to support …