Dynamics of Southwest Prehistory.

Studies of the prehistory of the American Southwest have tended to focus on restricted geographic areas rather than on the region as a whole. This volume, the result of a 1983 seminar at the School of American Research, reviews prehistoric development in 11 key areas in order to establish a broad conceptual framework encompassing the entire region. Seminar participants, all specialists in various aspects of southwestern prehistory, were asked to consider specific questions concerning the occupation of the area that they covered. These included population dynamics, functions of larger sites, nonenvironmental causes of culture change, implications of alterations in settlement patterns, demographic change as a response to imbalance in resource utilization and carrying capacity, and special features characteristic of each area. Of particular interest in the book is the examination of culture change and the factors that may have effected that change. Although each author approaches the general questions from a somewhat different perspective, the framework adopted for examining the dynamics of culture change provides sufficient structure for comparability. A final chapter by a specialist in southwest Asian prehistory puts the cultural manifestations of the American Southwest in a larger perspective. This volume is recommended for anyone with more than a casual interest in the prehistory of the American Southwest. It will be especially useful for upper-level undergraduate students and above. -A. Rogers, Western Carolina University