Hunter-gatherer cultural dynamics: Long- and short-term trends in Australian prehistory

• Published in: Journal of Archaeological Research
• Main Author: Lourandos H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers 1993
• Subjects: Australian prehistory; cultural dynamics; Holocene; hunter-gatherer; Pleistocene; 1204 Engineering Design; 1200 Arts and Humanities; 3302 Archaeology; Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctic Tasmania
• Online Access: https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:392759

Recent evidence indicates that a wide range of environmental sectors of Greater Australia had been peopled between ca. 30,000 and ca. 40,000 B.P. Differences in regional Pleistocene patterns of settlement, subsistence, and demography are becoming increasingly evident-such as those between central arid Australia and sub-Antarctic Tasmania. It now remains to model and explain the extremely long-term Pleistocene cultural sequences (spanning tens of thousands of years), in contrast to the more short-term cultural sequences that characterize, for example, the mid-late Holocene period of mainland Australia. While explanations remain unresolved, the latter period indicates the widest range of regional sociocultural and demographic changes.