Case Studies in Environmental Archaeology

A few years ago, one of us was approached by a student who asked if we really knew anything about human behavior from environmental archaeology. This student was taking an environmental archaeology course in which taphonomy and the biases of the techniques and methods used by environmental archae- ogists figured prominently. The goal was to train students to be informed users of environmental data. But the student, quite rightly, wanted to know if beyond taphonomy, recovery biases, and analytical biases, there was anything envir- mental archaeologists could say about the human condition. Her question was the stimulus for the first edition of this volume and continued to guide us as we edited this second edition. Our purpose is to show students and scholars, through a series of case studies, that there are things environmental archaeologists do know about the human-environmental relationship; many of which defy conventional archaeological expectations. To do so, however, we must break with the t- ditional organization of environmental archaeology along disciplinary lines. Environmental archaeology is intrinsically interdisciplinary. The demands of each discipline often mean, however, that specialists become further speci- ized in a very limited technical focus. While almost every environmental technique and method is represented in this edition, they are used as tools, not as ends in themselves.

The purpose of Case Studies in Environmental Archaeology is to highlight studies addressing significant anthropological issues in the Americas from the perspective of environmental archaeology. Environmental archaeology encompasses the application of biological and geological techniques to the study of human/environmental interactions. Each chapter is an original or revised work by internationally-recognized geoarchaeologists, human biologists, paleoethnobotanists, and zooarchaeologists. Each study demonstrates how and why the information obtained using environmental techniques is important to anthropologists instead of describing, critiquing, or advocating a method. These ethnographic, geological, and biological case studies successfully demonstrate the application of environmental science toward the resolution of questions related to human behavior in the past.

This second edition is based on the 1996 book of the same title. The editors have invited back a number ofcontributors from the first edition to revise and update their chapter. They also have included new studies in order to cover recent developments in the field or additional pertinent topics. It also includes a separate index listing the scientific and vernacular names of plants and animals referenced in the volume.

These case studies present examples from sites in North America, the Caribbean, and South America. Some of the key topics addressed in this unique volume include:

Systemic relationships between people and the physical environments and paleoenvironments in which they live

Relationships among landscapes, resource use, residential patterns, and political alliances

Issues involving human nutrition, health, mobility, sedentism, plant and animal domestication, diet, and trade

Subsistence strategies and resource availability

Intra-community social relations, rural/urban relationships, ethnicidentity, and the development of social complexity