IV. Earliest Migrations

Evidence indicates that the first peoples to migrate into the Americas, coming from northeastern Siberia into Alaska, were carrying stone tools and other equipment typical of the middle and end of the Paleolithic period.

These peoples probably lived in bands of about 100, fishing and hunting herd animals such as reindeer and mammoths. They probably used skin tents for shelter, and they must have tanned reindeer skins and sewn them into clothing similar to that made by the Inuit-parkas, trousers, boots, and mittens.

Gianni Dagli Orti/Corbis

As much as 13,000 years ago early inhabitants of the Americas, known as Paleoindians, hunted large mammals such as bison, mammoth, and mastodon. The hunting of such large prey was a late development in human prehistory, as it required sophisticated stone weaponry and a kind of planning and coordination possible only with an elaborate system of communication, such as language. This diorama from the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City depicts Mesoamerican Paleoindians killing a mastodon.

These peoples probably were nomadic, moving camp at least several times each year to take advantage of seasonal sources of food. It is likely that they gathered each summer for a few weeks with other bands to celebrate religious ceremonies and to trade, compete in sports, gamble, and visit.

At such gatherings, valuable information could be obtained about new sources of food or raw materials (such as stone for tools). Such news might have led families to move into new territory, eventually into Alaska and then farther south into the Americas.

Evidence for the earliest migrations into the Americas is scarce and usually not as clear as archaeologists would wish.

Evidence from the comparative study of Native American languages, as well as analysis of some genetic materials, suggest that these earliest migrations may have taken place around 30,000 years ago.

More direct evidence from archaeological sites places the date somewhat later. For example, in the Yukon, in what is now Canada, bone tools have been discovered that have been radiocarbon-dated to 22,000 BC. Campfire remains in the Valley of Mexico, in central Mexico, have been radiocarbon-dated to 21,000 BC, and a few chips of stone tools have been found near the hearths, indicating the presence of humans at that time. In a cave in the Andes Mountains of Peru, near Ayacucho, archaeologists have found stone tools and butchered animal bones that have been dated to 18,000 BC. A cave in Idaho, in the United States, contains similar evidence-stone tools and butchered bone-dated to 12,500 BC.

Early stone tools provide evidence of the existence and habits of the earliest immigrants to the Americas. Tools fashioned from stone have been found across North America and in parts of South America. Many tools made before 10,000 years ago appear with the remains of large Ice Age mammals that once lived in the Americas, such as mammoth and mastodon. Jerry Jacka

In none of these sites do distinctive American styles characterize the artifacts (manufactured objects such as tools). Artifacts having the earliest distinctive American styles appeared about 11,000 BC and are known as Clovis stone blades.

The Clovis point, such as this one from northeastern Utah, is the oldest type of stone tool known in the Americas. In North America, Clovis points date from between 11,000 and 8,500 years ago. Native Americans attached such points to shafts, making spears that could either be thrust directly at animal prey or thrown using atlatls (spear-throwers). Lithic Casting Lab

V. Major Culture Areas

To understand how different peoples live and how their societies have developed, anthropologists find it convenient to group societies into culture areas.

A culture area is first of all a geographical region; it has characteristic climate, land forms, and biological population-that is, fauna and flora. Humans who live in the region must adapt to its characteristics to obtain the necessities of life: No one can grow grain in the Arctic or hunt seals or whales in the desert, but people can survive in the Arctic by hunting seals, or in the desert by gathering foods such as cactus fruits.

Each culture area, then, has certain natural resources as well as the potential for certain technologies. Humans in the culture area use many of its resources and develop technologies-and social organizations-to fit the area's physical potential and its hazards (such as winter cold).

Neighboring peoples learn of one another's inventions and begin to use them. Thus, societies within a given culture area resemble one another and differ from those in other regions.

The Americas may be divided into many culture areas, and these divisions may be determined in different ways. Here, nine areas are used for North America, one for Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America), and four for South America.