Ecological Theory and Archaeological Environments: The World is a Whole Lot More Complex Than We Were Told

Clements, F. E. 1936 Nature and Structure of the Climax. Journal of Ecology 24: 252 - 284.

Gleason, H. A. 1939 The individualistic concept of the plant association. American Midland Naturalist 21: 92 - 110.

Daubenmire, R. 1966 Vegetation: Identification of Typal Communities. Science 151
(21 January): 291 - 298.

Vogl, Richard J. and Cottam, Grant and Robert McIntosh 1966 Vegetational Continuum. Science 152 (22 April): 546 - 547.

King, Francis B. and Russell W. Graham 1981 Effects of Ecological and Paleoecological Patterns on Subsistence and Paleoenvironmental Reconstructions. American Antiquity 46 (1): 128 -142.

Graham, R. and Grim, E. C. 1990 Effects of global climate change on the patterns of terrestrial biological communities. Trends in Ecology and Evolution (TREE) 5: 289 - 292.

There are a lot of readings but they are short. The first two by Clements and Gleason lay out the argument. Daubenmire defends Clements from the Continuum approach of Vogl, Cottam and McIntosh. King and Graham, and Graham and Grim explore implications. The issues covered here generated a heartfelt controversy that led the way to our modern dynamic view of the world. These ideas were enthusiastically presented and enthusiastically defended. I will review this controversy, illustrate with some data sets and discuss the implications for archaeology and the environment in general.