Organized into four sections, the twelve chapters of Rivers of Change are concerned with prehistoric Native American societies in eastern North America and their transition from a hunting and gathering way of life to a reliance on food production. Written at different times over a decade, the chapters vary both in length and topical focus. They are joined together, however, by a number of shared “rivers of change.”

Bruce D. Smith is an archaeologist at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History and is the author, coauthor, or editor of a wide range of works, including The Emergence of Agriculture.