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Now a subject of intensive study, this book reports on the critical transition from the foragers of the Paleolithic to the farmers of the Neolithic.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Introduction
1-Archaeology at the Margins: Exploring the Late Paleolithic to Neolithic Transition in China's Arid West (David B. Madsen, Chen Fa-Hu, and Gao Xing)
Part 2: Climate Change
2-Responses of Chinese Desert Lakes to Climate Instability During the Past 45,000 Years. (Bernd Wünnemann, Kai Hartmann, Manon Janssen, and Zhang Hucai Zhang)
3-Post-glacial Climate Variability and Drought Events in the Monsoon Transition Zone of Western China (Chen Fa-Hu, Cheng Bo, Zhao Hui, Fan Yu-Xin, David B. Madsen, and Jin Ming)
4-Vegetation Evolution in Arid China During Marine Isotope Stages 3 and 2 (~65-11 ka) (Ulrike Herzschuh and Liu Xingqi)
5-Holocene Vegetation and Climate Changes from Fossil Pollen Records in Arid and Semi-arid China (Zhao Yan, Yu Zicheng, Chen Fa-Hu, and An Chengbang)
Part 3: Theoretical Perspectives
6-Variation in Late Quaternary Central Asian Climates and the Nature of Human Response (David B. Madsen and Robert G. Elston)
7-The transition to Agriculture in Northwestern China (Robert L. Bettinger, Loukas Barton, Peter J. Richerson, Robert Boyd, Wang Hui, and Choi Won)
Part 4: Regional and Chronological Perspectives
8-Late Pleistocene Climate Change and Paleolithic Cultural Evolution in Northern China: Implications from the Last Glacial Maximum (Loukas Barton, P. Jeffery Brantingham, and Ji Duxue)
9-A Short Chronology for the Peopling of the Tibetan Plateau (P. Jeffrey Brantingham, Gao Xing, John W. Olsen, Ma Haizhou, David Rhode, Zhang Haiying, and David B. Madsen)
10--Modeling the Neolithic on the Tibetan Plateau (Mark S. Aldenderfer)
11-Zooarchaeological Evidence for Animal Domestication in Northwest China (Rowan K. Flad, Yuan Jing, and Li Shuicheng)
12-Yaks, Yak dung, and Prehistoric Human Habitation of the Tibetan Plateau (David Rhode, David B. Madsen, P. Jeffrey Brantingham, and Tsultrim Dargye)
Part 5: Summary and Integration
13-Changing Views of late Quaternary Human Adaptation in Arid China (David B. Madsen, Chen Fa-Hu, and Gao Xing)