Archaeological Institute of America Lecture: “The American Neolithic: A Portal to New Understandings about Agricultural Revolutions, Hard Baskets, and Population Booms”

The archaeological record of the Southwest has provided us with unparalleled insights into the biological and cultural effects of the adoption of farming. Yet we have rarely utilized our knowledge of the Southwest to inform Neolithic research in other parts of the globe, such as Europe, the Middle East, or Asia. Because the adoption of agriculture and the rise of social complexity in the Americas occur thousands of years later than elsewhere, there is a sense that the “Neolithic” in a region such as the Southwest has little to teach researchers working in earlier contexts. I will argue that nothing could be farther from the truth and will discuss some of the surprises of the last decade of research. Come find out how soft baskets became hard, how prehistoric populations increased at higher rates than we ever thought possible, and why people chose a life way that offered less meat and more work.