Analysis of five prehistoric regional subsistence-settlement systems in the Great Basin reveals two distinct adaptive strategies: a Desert Culture strategy characterized by shifting settlements and unspecialized subsistence patterns; and a Desert Village strategy characterized by fixed settlements and relatively specialized subsistence patterns. There is evidence showing that sociopolitical organization was closely related to adaptive strategy, the Desert Culture groups living in small family bands and the Desert Village groups organized in cohesive units with hereditary chieftains. The differences between these strategies do not reflect environmental constraints, both strategies being found in essentially equivalent natural settings. Although data presently available indicate that each strategy was temporally persistent once established in a given region, little is known regarding the changes in adaptive strategy that might have occurred during periods of population movement.