Humans at the end of the Ice Age : the archaeology of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition /

Human cultural adaptations at the end of the Pleistocene are of critical significance, for at this time the dietary requirements for anatomically modern people in a post-glacial ecology essentially became established. Twenty-five contributors of diverse origin, authorities in their respective areas of research, document this transition by reviewing the archaeological evidence from both the Old World and the New. There are lacunae in the coverage, with only the southern end and northeastern corner of Africa represented, while Mesoamerica and China are virtually omitted. Maps and tables abound, but only the chapters on northwestern and eastern North America have adequate illustrations, sorely missed in the papers on northeast and southeast Asia. The prehistoric sequence in each area is reviewed with relatively little reference to others. Thus, Michael Jochim's summation is more a call for embarkation on a new stage of systematic comparison of regional histories to refine ecological theories and "to explore the role of social interaction and historical constraint in cultural change." Graduate; faculty; professional. R. M. Rowlett University of Missouri--Columbia