Climatic change, culture, and civilization in North America
- 1 June 1981
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in World Archaeology
- Vol. 13 (1) , 87-100
- https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.1981.9979816
Abstract
Analysis of modern climatic data suggests a pattern of response to global cooling for precipitation in Mesoamerica and North America. Also research in palaeoclimatology has defined a series of globally warm and cold periods for the Holocene. This paper joins the study of modern and palaeoclimate into a time‐series model which appears to explain some of the florescences and declines of civilizations in the region during the last 3,000 years. Economic buffering and local invulnerability to climatic change for specifiable reasons appear to cover those cases which defy climatic explanation.Keywords
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