Prehistoric America: An Ecological Perspective / Edition 2

by Piotr Makowski

Overview

The cultural parallels between widely separated but environmentally similar regions are often extraordinary, yet these parallels are discounted by anthropologists on the basis that they ignore a large mass of less similar data. Too often cultural parallels between distant regions have been taken for granted rather than recognized as phenomena that need to be explained. The thesis of Prehistoric America is that they are neither fortuitous nor inconsequential, but an indication of the strength of environmental pressures on cultural development. This work is an excellent introduction to the prehistoric cultures of North and South America, one that will help the reader to discover and enjoy the intellectual adventure of archeology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780202330792
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	06/30/1980
Edition description:	2d ed
Pages:	222
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1470L (what's this?)

About the Author

Betty J. Meggers was a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution since 1951. She conducted fieldwork in Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, and Ecuador. Her publications included archeological monographs, edited volumes, general books on Amazonia and Ecuador, and over 200 articles on cultural ecology, cultural diffusion, pottery analysis, and transpacific contact. Her contributions have been recognized by six honorary doctorates from universities in Brazil, Argentina, and Ecuador.

Table of Contents

1: Introduction; 2: Settling The Hemisphere; 3: Cultural Development in Nuclear America and the intermeidate area; 4: Apaptation to permissive environments: the forests, the deserts, and the plains; 5: Environmental limitiation on cultural complexity: The pacific coasts, the marginals, and the arctic; 6: Problems and speculations