Holocene Human Ecology in Northeastern North America

Students of human behavior have always been interested in the relationship between human populations and their environment. Decades of research not only have illuminated the backdrop against which culture is viewed, but have identi­ fied many of the conditions that influence or promote technological develop­ ment, social transformation, and economic reorganization. It has become in­ creaSingly evident, however, that if we are to explore more forcefully the linkages between culture and environment, a processual orientation is required. This is found in human ecology-the study of the relationship between people and the ecosystem of which they are a part. This book is a collection of papers about the recent and distant past by scientists and humanists involved in the study of human ecology in northeastern North America. The authors critically examine the systemic interface between people and their environment first by identifying the indicators of that rela­ tionship (e.g., historical documentation, archaeological site patterning, faunal remains), then by defining the processes by which change in one part of the ecosystem affects other parts (e.g., by conSidering how an ecotonal gradient affects biotic communities over time), and finally by explicating the behavioral implications thereof.

Contenu

. Human Behavior and Holocene Ecology.- I. The Context of Human Adaptation.- 1 . The Use of Land Snails from Prehistoric Sites for Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction.- 2 . Historical Climates of the Northeastern United States: Seventeenth through Nineteenth Centuries.- 3 . "Where's the Salmon?": A Reevaluation of the Role of Anadromous Fisheries in Aboriginal New England.- 4 . Problems in the Use of Sea-Level Data for Archaeological Reconstructions.- II. People on the Landscape.- 5 . Indian Fires in the Prehistory of New England.- 6 . Territoriality and Horticulture: A Perspective for Prehistoric Southern New England.- 7 . The Effect of Estuary Formation on Prehistoric Settlement in Southern Rhode Island.- III. Long-Term Perspectives.- 8 . Early/Middle Holocene Environments in the Middle Atlantic Region: A Revised Reconstruction.- 9 . The Distribution of Late Quaternary Forest Regions in the Northeast: Pollen Data, Physiography, and the Prehistoric Record.- 10 . Ecological Leveling: The Archaeology and Environmental Dynamics of Early Postglacial Land Use.- Afterword.