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For example, he visits and describes Tom Lovejoy’s Minimum Critical Size of Eco-system Project in Brazil, the largest test to date of biogeographical models con-cerned with mitigating biotic extinction. Quammen also discusses at length the“Single Large Or Several Small” debate over the optimum size of biological reservesthat was a major theoretical dispute in the s and s.
Of course, it is not entirely fair to criticize an author for not writing the bookthat he or she did not set out to write. Howeverand it warrants reiterationanyauthor who deals with extinctions in our current era, wherein human culpability ishigh on the list of causes, should accept the responsibility to shed light on the cir-cumstances and if possible, point to preventive measures concerning other endan-gered species. That Chilton can treat a topic as important and disturbing as speciesextinction with levity and self-referential élan is not necessarily a bad thing. Butafter drawing the reader so successfully into his adventure, I wish he could haveinstructed the reader more effectively about the historical and geographical con-texts of the Labrador duck’s demise. Finally, I would hope that readers of this bookshare my dissatisfactions and look to the larger literature on species extinction tofill in the gaps and answer the questions that this book raises. It is a large and grow-ing literature on an immense and accelerating problem.Mark Welford, GeorgiaSouthern University–Statesboro
FIRST PEOPLES IN A NEW WORLD: Colonizing Ice Age America. By DavidJ. Meltzer. xviii and pp.; maps, diagrs., ills., bibliog., index. Berkeley:University of California Press, . . (cloth), isbn .
The peopling of the New World was the last great adventure of our hunting andgathering ancestors. Who they were, when they arrived, and what they did afterarriving are topics of considerable research and debateoften acrimoniousamongAmerican archaeologists and their various interdisciplinary collaborators, includ-ing geographers. Many aspects of the peopling of the New World, such as the distri-bution of ice sheets, lowered sea level, and terminal Pleistocene geomorphic andbiological evolution, are fundamentally issues of geography. Indeed, geographerssuch as Carl Sauer and George Carter have been key players in some of the debatesover the First Americans. David Meltzer’s volume is a synthesis of much of what weknowand don’t knowabout this earliest story in the archaeological record ofNorth America. Meltzer is an archaeologist, and much of this book is about archae-ology (“Paleo-Indian archaeology,” as it is known). But not all. Meltzer delves intoan array of disciplines that bear on the topic at hand. He takes an explicitly interdis-ciplinary approach to an inherently interdisciplinary topic. As such, many geogra-phers will want to read this volume.
This book is not intended primarily as a data-dense text or even as a compre-hensive state-of-the-discipline treatise. It is one archaeologist’s perspective, albeit aparticularly well-informed and interdisciplinary one. Several “personal journeys,”as I call them, are out on the market, describing the trials and tribulations of otherarchaeologists investigating the peopling of the New World; among them is James
geographical reviews
Adovasio’s The First Americans: In Pursuit of Archaeology’s Greatest Mystery.Meltzer’s approach is different. He attempts to tackle the fundamental issues at hand,looking as best he can at all sidesor at least the most serious and substantive sides
of the major issues. He gladly throws in and even pushes his own interpretations,but always in the context of the greater debate. His own experiences are incorpo-rated only to highlight or illustrate broader issues.
These themes in understanding the Peopling of the New World are presented inten chapters. The first two provide the critical background of fundamental archaeo-logical issues and late Pleistocene environmental conditions in order to understandthe questions and arguments presented in the following chapters. Chapter , “FromPaleoliths to Paleoindians,” deals with the historical debate over the antiquity ofpeople in the New World, which began in earnest in the s and ended (at least,the first round ended) at the Folsom site in New Mexico in the late s. Meltzer isthe leading authority on the history of the debate, and this chapter is by far the mostcomprehensive treatment of the issue available. Chapter , “The Pre-Clovis Con-troversy and Its Resolution,” gets into the nitty-gritty of the debate over humanantiquity in the New World that brewed in the decades following the Folsom dis-covery. By the late s, archaeologists realized artifacts named after finds nearClovis, New Mexico, were older than Folsom. For decades the conventional wisdomwas that Clovis artifacts were produced by the earliest occupants of the continent(about , years ago). But some scholars argued for an earlier occupation, insome cases based on a reasonable interpretation of what turned out to be question-able data and in other cases based on little more than wishful thinking. The issuewas resolvedfor many archaeologistsat the site of Monte Verde, Chile, in thes. Meltzer deftly weaves the story of this “pre-Clovis” debate.
Chapter , “Non-Archaeological Answers to Archaeological Questions,” looksat hypotheses and models about the peopling of the Americas derived from dataand interpretations in fields outside archaeology. These data include linguistic, den-tal, and genetic information from Native American and Asian populations. Meltzerprovides a straightforward and as uncomplicated explanation of this extremely com-plex topic as is possible and clearly illustrates the overwhelming case for origins inAsia. He also reviews the record of Paleo-Indian human remains, but only brieflybecause so few of themeighteen or soare older than , years b.p.
“American Origins: The Search for Consensus,” chapter , looks at the archaeo-logical case for Native American origins in northeast Asia and interior Alaska, bothrepresenting the present-day subaerial remains of Beringia, the great dryland areaof the Bering land bridge that once connected North America and Asia. Good ar-chaeological connections with the record south of the ice sheets are surprisinglyskimpy but are there, especially when turning to the dna indicators. Meltzer alsogives due space and consideration to, but ultimately dismisses, the notion that Clovispopulations derived from Europe via the North Atlantic.
Chapter , “What Do You Do When No One’s Been There Before?” is a sum-mary of Meltzer’s research on peopling an unpopulated landscape. How do you
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learn the landscape and other aspects of the environment? You have no neighbors,so how do you find your way? How does a population grow? The old fashioned way,of course, but what was the dating scene like? The earliest Americans had essentiallyunfettered access to this new land. How did they survive? They seemed to haveflourished and represent the ultimate in mobility. Clovis artifacts are found in allforty-eight contiguous states and into Mexico yet apparently date to within a rangeof just a few hundred years.
“Clovis Adaptations and Pleistocene Extinctions,” chapter , presents the fun-damental traits of Clovis archaeology and debates over Clovis dietbig-game huntersor broad-spectrum hunter-gatherers? But of even more interest to many geogra-phers is a look at one of the great mysteries of the late Pleistocene world: the extinc-tion of some genera of animals in North America around or at least no later thanabout , years b.p.that is, toward the end of the Clovis occupation of the con-tinent. The cause or causes of the extinction have been hotly debated. Among geog-raphers the best-known explanation is “overkill,” attributing the demise directly orindirectly to human predation (Clovis hunting). A broad counterargument, with avariety of nuanced variations, ascribes the extinction to the dramatic climate changesunder way at the time. Meltzer summarizes the many and varied aspects of thedebate but firmly argues against “overkill” for the simple reason that the evidencefor it is scarce.
Chapter , “Settling In: Late Paleoindians and the Waning Ice Age,” reviews thepost-Clovis Paleo-Indian record, which spans more time than Clovis and is repre-sented by a much richer archaeological record. Folsom is the best-known and mostintensively studied post-Clovis assemblage and draws the bulk of Meltzer’s atten-tion. He also delves into terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene climate change,which was quite dramatic, paying special attention to the Younger Dryas (,–, years ago), which was roughly coeval with the Folsom occupation.
The tenth and final chapter, “When Past and Present Collide,” deals with NativeAmericans and their contact with Europeans as well as with contemporary issuessurrounding their dealings with archaeologists. He presents a wide-ranging andcompelling discussion of the question, “Who owns the past?”
Each chapter contains a sidebar of several pages focusing on some aspect of thechapter at hand; radiocarbon dating, for example, in chapter . Others present somemore sensational issues, such as the recovery and legal issues surrounding the so-called Kennewick Man or the author’s field adventures (the famous trip to MonteVerde by a “blue ribbon panel of experts” to pass judgment on the validity of itspre-Clovis character; and his own excavations at the Folsom site). All the sidebarsillustrate science in action, and several provide insight into the goings-on of scien-tific research, which is not always flattering.
The book was intended as a coffee-table volume for the informed lay public butinstead is a scientifically solid and intellectually captivating synthesis written in aninformal and entertaining style. I will be using it in my course on Paleo-Indianarchaeology. It is very well illustrated, including an insert of color photographs of
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artifacts and sites. The publishers priced it for their popular market, so it is avail-able for an unusually low price (. in the header is not a typographical er-ror!). Anyone interested in the physical or environmental geography of NorthAmerica or Native American issues will be amply rewarded reading this book.Vance T. Holliday, University of Arizona–Tucson
GALÁPAGOS: A Natural History. By John Kricher. xvi and pp.; maps, diagr.,ills., bibliog.,index. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, . .
(paper), isbn .
The unique flora and fauna of the Galápagos Islands have fascinated travelers andscientists for nearly five centuries. Tomás de Berlanga discovered the islands in ,but not until Charles Darwin’s visit years later did attention focus on them.John Kricher’s Galápagos part natural history, part travelogueadds to the grow-ing literature on the islands and succeeds in its presentation of a difficult subject.The author weaves his personal experience on the islands with explanations of tropi-cal ecology, intermingling impressions of scenery, plants, and animal behavior withthe science of evolution.
Once Darwin published his theory of evolution, naturalists, collectors, and sci-entists traveled to the Galápagos to better understand the fauna and their distribu-tion, particularly how the plants and animals arrived and evolved. Kricher continuallyrefers to Darwin and evolution, explaining some of the general theories, particu-larly in chapters focused on tortoises, iguanas, and birds. Although written for ageneral audience, the discussion is not simplistic, and it includes a treatment ofmorphology and genetics not generally found in traditional field guides.
Any work on the Galápagos Islands has to explain the complicated history, physi-cal geography, biogeography, and natural history. Fortunately Kricher takes the timeto do that. The arid islands receive little rainexcept in El Niño yearsand havevery little freshwater, but the lush vegetation in the highlands is sustained by thenear-constant mist called garúa in Spanish. Best known for the populations of gianttortoises (Geochelone spp.) that sustained pirates and whalers in the eighteenth andnineteenth centuries, the Galápagos are home to dozens of endemic species, in-cluding land iguanas (Conolophus spp.), marine iguanas (Amblyrynchus christatus),lava lizards (Tropidurus spp.), and birds, particularly Darwin’s finches (Geospizaspp., Platyspiza crassirostris, Camarhynchus spp., and Certhidea olivacea). In thisunusual archipelago, tropical fauna live in close proximity to fauna usually found incold climes because of the cold ocean currents that bathe the equatorial islands. Forexample, the Galápagos penguin (Spheniscus mendiculus) can be seen within a fewfeet of the greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber). The Galápagos Marine Reservesurrounding the islands is home to the penguins and other animals, including whales,dolphins, and pinnipeds.
The penultimate chapter, “Galápagos ?,” discusses the threats to the islandsand efforts to conserve them for the long term. Although many visiting scientistscome every year to conduct research on some aspect of evolutionary biology, it is
