Neo-environmental determinism and agrarian ‘collapse’ in Andean prehistory

1999/09/01 by Clark L. Erickson · 152 citations
Arts and Humanities · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Agrarian society #Agriculture #Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory #Anthropology #Archaeology #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Determinism #Environmental and Cultural Studies in Latin America and Beyond #Environmental ethics #Epistemology #Ethnology #Geography #History #Interpretation (philosophy) #Linguistics #Philosophy #Prehistory #Reductionism #Sociology #Variation (astronomy)

paper · doi:10.1017/s0003598x00065236

published in Antiquity 73(281), 634-642 (Cambridge University Press)

openalex publication_date 1999/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/08

Abstract

In early anthropology, environmental determinism was used to explain race, human demography, material culture, cultural variation and cultural change. As anthropological interpretation evolved, simplistic reductionist thinking was replaced with more complex socio-cultural explanations. Despite these theoretical advances,environmental determinism continues to be invoked to explain Andean prehistory.

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