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"Hunter-Anderson, Rosalind L"
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Prehistoric adaptation in the American Southwest
This resource is about post-Pleistocene adaptive change among the aboriginal cultures of the mountains and deserts of Arizona and New Mexico.
Book
Savanna anthropogenesis in the Mariana Islands, Micronesia: re-interpreting the palaeoenvironmental data
This paper argues that human actions had nothing to do with creating tropical Pacific island savannas, which likely arose during the Pleistocene, and that geographic factors such as soils, climate, and fire are responsible for their distribution and persistence in the Holocene. Palaeontological observations from the southern Mariana Islands, including charcoal particles, pollen, and spores in palaeosediments from Guam and Saipan, cited by archaeologists as evidence for human‐caused savannas, are re‐interpreted as a natural outcome of geo‐climatic conditions. Archaeological and ethnographic findings, past climate proxies, and field studies in soil science are also brought to bear on the issue. The data and arguments presented in favor of natural causation of the Marianas savannas motivate a re‐examination of proposals that purport to explain the presence of savannas elsewhere in the tropical Pacific. Implications for future research are drawn.
Journal Article
Cultural Responses to a Late Holocene Climatic Oscillation in the Mariana Islands, Micronesia: Lessons from the Past
Archaeological data from south-central Guam are presented to show that technological and social adaptations enabled the ancestral Chamorros of the Mariana Islands, Micronesia, to remain mobile farmer-fishers despite a major climatic oscillation, from the Medieval Warm Period (MWP, c. 800-1350 C.E.) to the Little Ice Age (LIA, c. 1350-1900 C.E.). For several centuries people responded appropriately to increased aridity and harvest shortfalls during the LIA but tolerance limits for stresses to their cultural system were exceeded during violent clashes with Spanish colonizers in the late 17th century.
Journal Article
Savanna Anthropogenesis in the Manana Islands, Micronesia: Re-Interpreting the Palaeoenvironmental Data
This paper argues that human actions had nothing to do with creating tropical Pacific island savannas, which likely arose during thè Pleistocene, and that geographie factors such as soils, climate, and fire are responsible for their distribution and persistence in the Holocene. Palaeontological observations from the southern Mariana Islands, including charcoal particles, pollen, and spores in palaeosediments from Guam and Saipan, cited by archaeologists as evidence for human-caused savannas, are re-interpreted as a naturai outeome of geo-climatic conditions. Archaeological and ethnographie findings, past climate proxies, and field studies in soil science are also brought to bear on the issue. The data and arguments presented in favor of naturai causation of the Marianas savannas motivate a re-examination of proposais that purport to explain the présence of savannas elsewhere in the tropical Pacific. Implications for future research are drawn.
Journal Article
Rice As a Prehistoric Valuable in the Mariana Islands, Micronesia
Although historic and linguistic sources indicate that the indigenous Mariana Islanders of Micronesia cultivated rice before initial Western contact in the early 1500s, it is not known when or why rice cultivation was adopted in these islands—the only case in Remote Oceania. Recent excavations in Guam have confirmed the late prehistoric presence of Oryza sativa L. in rare pottery sherds, and the nature and timing of all the available evidence—from archaeology, palaeoethnobotany, linguistics, and history—suggest a solution to this puzzle. The adaptive significance of rice, a labor-intensive cultigen in comparison with the common Old World tropical staples of Micronesia (yams, taro, bananas, and breadfruit), may have been as a \"valuable\" in ceremonial exchanges and events that marked the late prehistoric period. The accumulating evidence for late prehistoric rice cultivation in the Marianas is summarized, and an explanation-sketch is offered for the adoption and use of rice as a high-prestige item.
Journal Article
Comments on Cordell and Plog's “Escaping the Confines of Normative Thought”
Cordell and Plog's recent article in American Antiquity is criticized. It is maintained that their alternative suggestions for redescription and interpretation of the Southwestern archaeological data base are not supported by theories and therefore are no more desirable than the traditional conceptual schemes employed thus far.
Journal Article