Book excerpt: Desert Peoples: Archaeological Perspectives provides an issues-oriented overview of hunter-gatherer societies in desert landscapes that combines archaeological and anthropological perspectives and includes a wide range of regional and thematic case studies. Brings together, for the first time, studies from deserts as diverse as the sand dunes of Australia, the U.S. Great Basin, the coastal and high altitude deserts of South America, and the core deserts of Africa Examines the key concepts vital to understanding human adaptation to marginal landscapes and the behavioral and belief systems that underpin them Explores the relationship among desert hunter-gatherers, herders, and pastoralists