Prehistoric Coastal Adaptations: The Economy and Ecology of Maritime Middle America

by Barbara L. Stark (Editor), Barbara Voorhies (Editor)

Prehistoric Coastal The Economy and Ecology of Maritime Middle America is a compendium of research papers and treatises on Middle American people who lived within coastal habitats. The collection aims to reveal distinctive coastal adaptations and the role of Middle American people in major social transformations. The book discusses topics on the history of occupations of certain coastal sites; correlation of site location to resource procurement patterns; settlement locations and subsistence evidence in the coastal and inland habitats of Costa Rica; and the maritime adaptation and the rise of Maya civilization. The final chapter of the book also discusses the future research directions in the study of Middle American coastal people. The text will be of value to archeologists, anthropologists, historians, ethnologists, and researchers.

313 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1978

About the author

Barbara L. Stark specializes in the origins and developmental trajectories of complex societies in Mesoamerica. Prehistoric economy and sociopolitical organization in tropical lowland areas have been the focus of her field projects on the Pacific coastal plain of Guatemala and the Gulf lowlands of Mexico.

The Gulf lowlands have been the focus of a long-term survey and settlement pattern investigation with departmental, university, National Science Foundation and National Geographic Society support, with permission from the Instituto Nacional de Antropologé Historia of Mexico. This project has included multiple students and archaeological professionals. The artifact and feature data are incorporated into a Geographical Information Systems format and have been used in thematic maps for statistical and interpretive analyses. The project maintains a laboratory in Jalapa, Mexico, for continuing analyses of collections.

Stark's publications have dealt with coastal adaptations, settlement patterns, tropical urbanism, ceramics, crafts and long-term economic and political change. She has served as a member of the executive boards of the American Anthropological Association and the Society for American Archaeology and as editor for archaeology for the American Anthropologist. She currently serves as an advisor for Arqueología and Arqueología Mexicana. Stark has been a guest instructor at the Escuela Nacional de Antropología and at the Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.