ABSTRACT
The influence of demographic, environmental, and climatic conditions on human decision-making can be identified with a settlement ecology approach. The decisions of interest in this chapter are those to remain in place or move. Archaeological data on residential and settlement abandonment are indicators of these past decisions. The methods described in this chapter are new and can be applied in any region with a detailed spatial and temporal settlement, and climate history. Understanding the conditions that influence settlement patterns has a long and analytically productive history in the Americas. As settlement and paleoclimatic data continue to accumulate worldwide, methodological advancements must also continue. Otherwise, the challenges and frustrations of identifying generalizable results, and of separating correlation from causation when settlement pattern and climatic changes co-occur, will persist.
