Front cover -- Climate Change and Cultural Dynamics -- Copyrigh page -- Contents -- List of Contributors -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- Chapter 1. Climate and culture change: exploring Holocene transitions -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Holocene climate change -- 3. Possible causes of Holocene climate change -- 4. Lessons from the past for the future -- 5. Linkages between climate and culture change -- 6. Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 2. Mid-Holocene climate and culture change in coastal Peru -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The Peruvian archaeological record of Holocene El Niño frequency variation -- 3. Mid-Holocene climate from natural archives -- 4. Cultural records -- 5. Conclusions -- References -- Chapter 3. Mid-Holocene climate and culture change in the South Central Andes -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The physiogeographical setting -- 3. Habitats for human occupation in the Atacama Desert -- 4. Mid-Holocene aridity: Hostile conditions and scarce resources around 5000 cal yr BP -- 5. Archaic settlement patterns and paleoenvironmental variability -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Chapter 4. Mid-Holocene climate and cultural dynamics in Brazil and the Guianas -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The coastal strip -- 3. Amazonia -- 4. Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 5. Culture and climate in Mesoamerica during the Middle Holocene -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Chronology -- 3. Paleoclimate -- 4. Prehistory -- 5. Conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Chapter 6. Middle Holocene environments of north and east Africa, with special emphasis on the African Sahara -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Tropical Africa -- 3. The Sahara -- 4. Discussion -- Acknowledgement -- References -- Chapter 7. Influence of Holocene marine transgression and climate change on cultural evolution in southern Mesopotamia› -- 1. Introduction.

2. Postglacial environmental change in southern Mesopotamia -- 3. State development in southern Mesopotamia -- 4. Discussion -- 5. Conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Chapter 8. Mid-Holocene cultural dynamics and climatic change in the Western Pacific -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Regional climatology -- 3. Climatic and environmental change in the mid-Holocene -- 4. Cultural change in mid- to late Holocene Australia -- 5. Highland New Guinea agriculture -- 6. Some conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Chapter 9. Mid-Holocene climate and cultural dynamics in eastern Central China -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Paleoclimate of the mid-Holocene in eastern Central China -- 3. Cultural dynamics in eastern Central China -- 4. Discussion: paleoclimates, paleoenvironments and cultural dynamics in the mid-Holocene in eastern Central China -- 5. Conclusions -- References -- Chapter 10. Mid-Holocene climatic changes and cultural dynamics in the basin of the Sea of Japan and adjacent areas -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Climatic and environmental changes -- 3. Cultural dynamics in the mid-Holocene in the basin of the Sea of Japan -- 4. Discussion and conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Chapter 11. Mid-Holocene climatic and cultural dynamics in Northern Europe -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Fluctuations in the Scandinavian climate -- 3. Mid-Holocene cultural dynamics in northern Europe -- 4. Summing up -- 5. Conclusions -- References -- Chapter 12. Mid-Holocene cultural adaptations to central Maine -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Previous environment/culture interpretations -- 3. The cultural record -- 4. Wetland adaptations -- 5. Paleoecology -- 6. Archaeology -- 7. Culture and environment linkages -- 8. Conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Chapter 13. Mid-Holocene cultural dynamics in southeastern North America -- 1. Introduction.

2. Emergent riverine economies and cultural complexity in the midcontinent -- 3. The initiation of mound building and other monumental construction -- 4. The persistence of interriverine forager adaptations -- 5. Pond, river, and coastal settlement in Florida and adjoining areas -- 6. Population distributions -- 7. Conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Chapter 14. Mid-Holocene culture and climate on the Northwest Coast of North America -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Mid-Holocene paleoclimate -- 3. Archaeological models -- 4. The archaeological record -- 5. Mid-Holocene environmental change -- 6. Recent fluctuations in climate and resources -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Chapter 15. Middle Holocene climate change and human population dispersal in western North America -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Climate records -- 3. Linguistic, genetic, and archeological records -- 4. Discussion -- 5. Conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Subject Index.