Introduction

As a habitat for man, the New World contrasts with the Old World in several important features. The location of the tallest mountains along the western margin of the land mass has produced similar vegetation configurations in North and South America. Prehistoric cultural development was influenced by the peculiarities of this environmental setting, which facilitated interaction between some regions, stimulated parallel developments in others, and left few in isolation. Ethnologists have begun to take greater interest in the adaptive aspects of culture, and their findings should illuminate many puzzling features of the archaeological record. The reconstruction of prehistoric cultural development was handicapped even more before an absolute time scale became available. An attempt to produce a coherent synthesis of aboriginal American cultural development requires a certain amount of temerity. Tobacco, which provides enjoyment to people nearly everywhere, was domesticated in the Americas.