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Which Native American culture areas are most commonly used by anthropologists?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Map of North America divided by red boundary lines into major indigenous culture areas, including American Arctic, American Subarctic, Northwest Coast, Plateau, Great Basin, California, Southwest, Plains, Northeast, and Southeast, covering regions from Alaska and northern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.
Culture area

The culture area approach is a typology used in anthropology to organize and compare cultures based on geographic regions where specific cultural traits co-occur. While the specific number of areas can vary depending on whether regions are subdivided or conjoined, anthropologists most commonly identify the following 10 culture areas for Native North America:1

Some scholars may prefer alternative groupings, such as combining the Northeast and Southeast into an Eastern Woodlands area or merging the Plateau and Great Basin into an Intermontane culture area. Although these regions were originally framed by researchers like Clark Wissler and A.L. Kroeber to study traditional cultures, the concept remains a foundational tool for ordering data and teaching in the 21st century.123