Environmental Potential and the Postglacial Readaptation in Eastern North America

Abstract

Abstract In definitions of the postglacial readaptation in eastern North America, attempts have been made to apply a single standard to the entire area. Such definitions are inadequate since a number of environmental zones existed in the region during late glacial and early postglacial times. These consisted of a periglacial zone with a fairly high carrying capacity supporting a cold-climate hunting adaptation; a zone of closed boreal forest with a relatively low carrying capacity; and a region of broadleaf and southern forests with a relatively high carrying capacity for a mixed gathering-and-hunting base. In the southeast there is a gradual transition from formally defined Paleo-Indian to Archaic culture, although both groups, if separation is possible, had potentially the same subsistence base. In the northeast there is a low population density hiatus between two periods of higher population density.