Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Recent compilations of radiocarbon data in different countries throughout the world enable unprecedented opportunities for comparative analyses of prehistoric human demography and cultural evolution in relation to climate change. Yet, the methods and, importantly, the theory for conducting comparisons of radiocarbon records and paleoenvironmental datasets are only just beginning to come into focus. For example, one pattern among radiocarbon records worldwide is the sustained growth of human populations during the first three millennia of the Late Holocene, followed by rapid declines from 1000-600 cal BP. Are these trends reflecting global scale climate and environmental forcing mechanisms? Do they represent common human-environment interactions, regardless of the scale of cultural complexity? Or, are they merely the consequence of sampling and research biases? This symposium aims to better understand such questions by bringing together specialists from around the world and focusing on different types of approaches. Organized by the PAGES PEOPLE3000 (Paleoclimate and the Peopling of the Earth) project, the symposium will contribute to explaining the dynamic processes, often non-linear, reflected in radiocarbon time-series, which are challenging paleoscientists to rethink traditional models of human-environment interaction and the roles of agriculture and cultural complexity in mediating climate-human population dynamics.
Other Keywords
demography •
Dating Techniques: Radiometric •
Fremont •
digital archaeology •
Coastal and Island Archaeology •
Environment and Climate •
Digital Archaeology: Simulation and Modeling •
Resilience and Sustainability •
Geoarchaeology •
Chronology
Geographic Keywords
North America (Continent) •
United States of America (Country) •
Republic of Panama (Country) •
South America (Continent) •
USA (Country) •
Belize (Country) •
Republic of Peru (Country) •
Republic of Colombia (Country) •
Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (Country) •
Netherlands Antilles (Country)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-14 of 14)
- Documents (14)
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Climate Change and Culture in Late Pre-Columbian Amazonia (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Climate change has been linked to the reorganisation of past societies in different parts of the globe. However, until recently, the lack of archaeological and palaeoclimate data for the Amazon had prevented an evaluation of the relationship between climate change and cultural change in the largest...
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Climatic and Demographic Changes in the South Central Andean Highlands during the Late Holocene (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The south central Andean highlands have a rich and complex socio-environmental history. Although generally seen as a single cultural area with fluid sociocultural interaction, its geographic heterogeneity is mirrored by its cultural diversity. To explain the varying effects of climate in the late Holocene...
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A Critical Review of Radiocarbon Dates Clarifies the Human Settlement of Madagascar (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The timing and subsequent environmental impacts of the human settlement of Madagascar remain key topics of debate in archaeology. Located approximately 250 miles off the East African coast, Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world, appears to have been one of the world’s last large landmasses to...
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Human-Environment System Change and Stability in the Farming/Hunter-Gatherer Transition (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Central Western Argentina shows during historical times a surprising mosaic of human strategies, ranging from populations with domestic plants and animals in one extreme, to populations focused on wild resources in the other. In general, this variation was associated with more sedentary and dense...
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The Impact of Temperature on the Transition to Maize Agriculture in the Northern Upland United States Southwest (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While the Neolithic Demographic Transition (NDT) spread rapidly across most of Europe (~600 years) after the first introduction of domesticated plants, the NDT is much more gradual in the southwestern United States (1600–2600 years) following the first appearance of maize (ca. 2260–1990 BC). Climate had a...
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Late Holocene Human Population Dynamics in Eastern North America: Lessons from Site and Artifact Records in DINAA and Beyond (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Population trends in Eastern North America are explored using the incidence and distribution of diagnostic artifacts and components, using continental scale datasets like DINAA and PIDBA, and as developed by researchers at the locality, state, or regional level. Such research has a long history in the...
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Managing the Current Mass Extinction for Human Populations (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent analyses of large sample of radiocarbon ages illustrate the potential of these records to investigate general problems in human ecology. While much of the current literature focuses on the relationship between local ecology shifts and population booms or busts, no one has yet to address the general...
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Modeling Climate, Ocean Productivity and Human Population Dynamics on the North Pacific Rim (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We explore human population trends for several maritime regions around the North Pacific Rim over the last several thousand years. These data show correlated but oscillating patterns of populations from the eastern to the western Pacific. Two alternative models explain the patterns of population peaks and...
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Museums Make Great Partners for Science Communication: Sharing Successful Programming from PEOPLE 3K (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. I explore the role of museums as partners for science communication within interdisciplinary research teams. Using examples of curriculum and programming from the Museum of Anthropology’s Educational Outreach, I discuss useful approaches for distilling scientific ideas generated from the Variance...
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PEOPLE3k: Demographic Boom and Bust Cycles of Coastal Hunter-gatherers Cycles Track Shifting Upwelling Conditions in Northern Chile (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Extensive archaeological shell middens can be found throughout coastal northern Chile, where they span more than 9,000 years. They contain abundant terrestrial plants and shellfish remains and can often accumulate very quickly and/or episodically. We use multiple radiocarbon dates to measure local...
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The Role of Edge Effects in Late Holocene Archaeological Radiocarbon Time Series (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Many archaeological radiocarbon time-series throughout the world display a decline of radiocarbon date frequencies from ca. 900-600 cal BP. In this presentation we examine alternative hypotheses that may explain these trends. We analyze whether dramatic declines in radiocarbon date frequencies are due to...
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Societal Cycling Influenced by Climatic Variability Among Early Agricultural Communities: Comparative Perspectives from Belize and Croatia (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological studies continue to highlight the extreme variability in sociopolitical responses to prehistoric fluctuations in climate, from the emergence to complete breakdown of hierarchical societies. These processes were likely more volatile among early farming communities with high degrees of...
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The Socio-Ecological Dynamics of the Uinta Fremont Agricultural Transition (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Northeastern Utah’s Uinta Basin marks the northernmost extent of maize agriculture diffused from the American Southwest, with as many as a dozen distinct Fremont pithouse communities forming between AD 300-1350. Recent work in the Cub Creek locality of Dinosaur National Monument demonstrates that Fremont...
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The Suitability of Dry-Farming and Its Impact on Fremont Paleodemography in the Northern Uinta Basin (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent work in Utah’s northern Uinta Basin shows close relationships between precipitation variability and population dynamics during the Fremont period, AD 300-1350. In this study, we evaluate the role that changes in the suitability of local dry-farming conditions had on observed regional settlement...