Sustainable Lifeways: Cultural Persistence in an Ever-changing Environment

All organisms and species respond to risk in their environment. Regardless of the source of risk, societies, ancient and modern, have to deal with it on several time scales: annual and interannual variability in weather, pests, and other short-term risks; the longer-term changes in climate, soil conditions, and vegetation cover that can be perceived and recorded in generational time; and the even longer-term changes in environmental conditions that are least likely to be recognized by social groups, yet have a material effect on their ability to persist. By their collective actions, societies can mitigate or exacerbate immediate and long-term risk in their environment.

This edited volume brings together papers from a symposium entitled "Forces of Nature: Risk and Resilience as Factors of Long-Term Cultural Change." The chapters focus on one of four areas of the world with significant archaeological and paleoenvironmental databases: West Asia, the American Southwest, East Africa, and Andean South America. With the perspective of different chronological and spatial scales within each region, this volume addresses forces of conservatism and innovation at work in societies dependent on the exploitation of aquatic and other wild resources, agriculture, and specialized pastoralism.

Naomi F. Miller is a Research Project Manager in the Near East Section of the Penn Museum. Her research focuses on ancient environment and land use through the study of plant remains. She has worked primarily on sites in Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, and Syria.

Katherine M. Moore, a Consulting Scholar in the American Section at the Penn Museum, is interested in the archaeology of cultural ecology and nutrition. She uses zooarchaeology to study early pastoral societies in Bolivia, Peru, and Turkmenistan.

Kathleen Ryan is a Consulting Scholar and former Associate Curator in the African Section, Penn Museum. She has carried out research in Kenya since 1990 when she began a study of Maasai cattle herders in Kajiado District. She is interested in how current Maasai livestock management practices help archaeologists understand the origins and social contexts of pastoralism in East Africa and whether early pastoral practices inform present cattle herding strategies.

At the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Naomi F. Miller is a Research Project Manager in the Near East Section, Katherine M. Moore is a Consulting Scholar in the American Section, and Kathleen Ryan is a Consulting Scholar in the African Section.