Abstract: Food production is recognized as one of the most significant events that marks the transition from the late Pleistocene to early Holocene. However, not all hunter-gatherers appeared to accept this subsistence strategy immediately. A previously published model (see Vol. 25 :42 - 55) predicted that forager strategies would be seen in the plant-dependents of South China and Southwest China, as well as the animal dependents of the northeast-southwest transitional zone, which has the highest hunting resources. In addition, collector strategies would be used by peoples who were dependent on plants in North and Central China, where food production emerged. This research compares the model with archaeological evidence, and explores the relationship between them. In addition, this paper also evaluates hunter-gatherer subsistence diversity of those who did not initially utilize food production at the end of late Pleistocene. Finally, I discuss possible mechanisms of adaptive changes of late Pleistocene-early Holocene hunter-gatherers in China.

Key words: Environmental changes; Ecological modeling; Adaptive patterns; Hunter-gatherers; Food production