Environmental change and the social context of human adaptation strategies during the Archaic Period in the Caribbean

Summary

The connection between environmental change and social response is complex because change occurs on multiple inter-related factors, human decisions are filtered by social buffers, and the rate and scale of environmental change differs from scale of human decision-making. In this presentation I consider the rate of coastal landscape change before the mid-Holocene affecting human settlement patterns in the Caribbean, evaluate traditional settlement patterns in the context of maritime culture, and investigate human response to a sudden, local higher-precipitation event at the beginning of the Late Holocene. The analysis of Archaic contexts in Puerto Rico suggests that the picture we have built of early settlement patterns is based on very incomplete data, and that adaptation strategies to climate change are not monolithic, even within the same period. Multiple responses can enhance resilience, as social support can continue through alliances and exchanges, strengthening social bonds that can help buffer catastrophes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• New Insights into the Archaic of the circum-Caribbean

Keywords

Spatial Coverage