DESERT PEOPLES: ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES; ED. BY PETER VETH

About this book

Desert Peoples: Archaeological Perspectives provides an issues-oriented overview of hunter-gatherer societies in desert landscapes. Studies of such societies have long been our primary source of information about human adaptability and how societies in marginal environments deal with risk. Desert Peoples combines archaeological and anthropological perspectives and includes a wide range of regional and thematic case studies. It brings together for the first time studies from deserts as diverse as the sand dunes of Australia, the U.S. Great Basin, the coastal and high altitude deserts of South America, and the core deserts of Africa. Written by an international roster of experts, Desert Peoples examines the key concepts vital to understanding human adaptation to marginal landscapes and the behavioral and belief systems that underpin them, including: notions of environmental variability, risk-minimization, flexibility in group composition and mobility patterns, information exchange, diet, and the role of graphic systems. Ultimately, Desert Peoples' comparative approach provides an overview of current understandings and debates about cultural and ecological processes affecting hunter-gatherer societies in deserts.