A collaborative project in Mesoamerica and Southwestern North America draws on interdisciplinary approaches, surveys, and the study of concrete evidence of changes in maize, to challenge the long-held view that the shift to agriculture from hunting was uniform across regions. Instead, they argue that this transition happened in two phases, beginning with central areas low-productivity launches, followed by satellite areas' faster production rates.

The paper "Large-scale patterns in the agricultural demographic transition of Mesoamerica and Southwestern North America," was published May 4 in American Antiquity and has been featured in the Academic Times and . It was authored by Richard G. Lesure, R. J. Sinensky, Gregson Schachner and Thomas A. Wake, University of California, Los Angeles; and Katelyn J. Bishop, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.