ABSTRACT
A review of cultural development in prehistoric America in the context of general types of environment brings out significant facts. Differences in the ecological character of the Deserts and the Plains, or the Deserts and the Pacific Coasts, are largely responsible for divergent cultural development in these contiguous regions. The fact that the course of cultural development on the eastern and western margins of the Pacific was sufficiently synchronic to provide a favourable context for diffusion is taken into consideration in spite of its relevance. One of the most interesting illustrations of the relationship between environment and cultural development is provided by the prehistory. Viewing cultural development in prehistoric America in ecological perspective reveals parallels in adaptation to environmentally similar but geographically isolated portions of the hemisphere that are far too numerous and specific to be the product of chance.
