Prehistory of North America

A Prehistory of North America covers the ever-evolving understanding of the prehistory of North America, from its initial colonization, through the development of complex societies, and up to contact with Europeans.

This book is the most up-to-date treatment of the prehistory of North America.  In addition, it is organized by culture area in order to serve as a companion volume to “An Introduction to Native North America.”  It also includes an extensive bibliography to facilitate research by both students and professionals.

In This Section

I. Author Bio

II. Author Letter

Mark Q. Sutton began his career in anthropology in 1968.  While still in high school, he took advantage of the opportunity to participate in archaeological excavations conducted by the local Community College. He went on to earn a BA (1972), an MA (1977), and a Ph.D (1987) in anthropology.  He has worked as an archaeologist for the US Air Force, the US Bureau of Land Management, various private consulting firms, and taught at a number of community colleges and universities.  He taught at California State University, Bakersfield from 1987 to 2007 where he retired as Emeritus Professor of Anthropology.  He now works for Statistical Research, Inc. in San Diego.  Dr. Sutton works on understanding hunter-gatherer adaptations to arid environments but has also investigated entomophagy, prehistoric diet and technology, and optimal foraging theory.  Dr. Sutton has worked at more than 120 sites in North America and has published over 160 books, monographs, and papers on archaeology and anthropology.

Dear Colleagues,

The purpose of this letter is to introduce you to a new treatment on the prehistory of North America. I have worked in North American archaeology and prehistory for the last 43 years and have taught the class for the last 20 or so. Most of my fieldwork has been in western North America, but I have visited other regions.

My undergraduate work was in California, my Masters was in the Southwest, and my PhD was on linguistic prehistory in the Great Basin and beyond. I have worked on over 100 sites and have published many site reports and synthetic treatments of regional prehistories. All of this has created an appreciation of the intricate connections between regions, peoples, and times. I continue to be active in both fieldwork and synthesis knowing that as we learn more about the past, our ideas and interpretation of that past will evolve.

In teaching classes on the prehistory of North America, I was disappointed by the available texts, primarily in what I considered the poor coverage of western North America. In 2000, I completed the first edition of a textbook on Native Peoples of North America (now in its fourth edition), which, following the Smithsonian Handbook series, was organized by culture area. I thought that a new treatment of North American Prehistory following that same basic organization would be useful and could serve as a companion volume to the Native North America book. So, in 2001, I began the 10-year odyssey to complete A Prehistory of North America.

What a job! There is so much information now available that the task of reviewing, distilling, organizing, and synthesizing all the data was almost too much. Bit by bit I worked through the material and fleshed out the chapters. I looked at many thousands of reference works and while I did not include them all, you can see that there are about 2,000 references in the bibliography. These references should serve as the starting point of virtually any term paper that a professor could assign to the student, removing one of the major excuses students use regarding term papers ("I couldn’t find anything"!).

As part of the idea of A Prehistory of North America being a companion volume to An Introduction to Native North America, the Prehistory book focuses on prehistory but mentions the ethnographic groups, while the Native America volume focuses on ethnography but mentions prehistory. I hope that this "transition" is useful.

It was also my goal to make the book short enough and easy enough to read that students would actually read it. I think it is also accessible to lay persons. I hope that you will find the book a great choice for you and your students. Of course, nothing is perfect (especially a first edition) and I am hoping for constructive feedback so I can improve the work if there is a second edition. Please let me know what you think and how I can improve the work, by emailing me at msutton@csub.edu.

Sincerely,

Mark Q. Sutton

Emeritus Professor of Anthropology

California State University, Bakersfield