A re-examination of data from eastern Great Basin sites (in particular Hogup Cave) indicates that subsistence patterns did not, as suggested by Jennings (1957) and Aikens (1970), remain essentially unchanged throughout the period of Archaic occupation. The evidence points to a major adaptive shift from semi-permanent settlement on lake peripheries to primary dependence on upland resources during the mid-Holocene. This adaptive modification was related to increased effective moisture, concomitant lake level increases and flooding of lake periphery resources rather than the purported Altithermal dessication as suggested by Baumhoff and Heizer (1965). There was a lengthy hiatus between Archaic and Fremont occupations of ca. 2000 years at lake periphery sites and ca. 1000 years for the northeastern Great Basin in general. This fact militates against the commonly held assumption that the Fremont culture developed from an Archaic substratum in this area.

An analysis of cotton remains from Huaca Prieta on the north Peruvian coast, dating from circa 2500 B.C. to circa 750 B.C., indicates that they were probably primitive forms of G. barbadense L. and similar in most features to those previously examined from sites in the Ancon area of the central coast (Stephens and Moseley 1974). As in the Ancon materials, there is a tendency for seed size, boll size and fiber width to increase from the earlier to later levels. Most of the Ancon materials belonged to the Preceramic Period, while at Huaca Prieta both Preceramic and Initial Periods are represented. Only fuzzy seeds were found among the Ancon materials and among the Preceramic materials recovered from Huaca Prieta. Tufted seeds first appear during the Initial Period at Huaca Prieta; it is the prevailing type among present-day cultivars, and may have been favored under human selection because their fibers are much more readily removed from the seeds by hand. It is believed that fuzzy seeds represent the more primitive condition; it is the prevailing type among present-day wild forms of G. barbadense. It remains a question whether the tufted seeds at Huaca Prieta originated as mutants in the locally cultivated fuzzy seeded types, or whether they were new forms, introduced along with pottery and other crop plants from elsewhere. None of the cotton materials so far examined from Peruvian coastal sites show affinities with cottons still extant in the Amazon Basin, and no wild, or apparently wild, forms of G. barbadense have yet been found east of the Andes.

In the humid tropics of the Americas, where preservation of plant materials is unlikely, archaeological evidence for manioc cultivation largely consists of artifacts which are similar to artifacts associated with manioc cultivation in the ethnographic record and which, by analogy, were similarly used in the prehistoric past. The validity of this inference by analogy is examined in terms of ceramic platters and stone grater teeth, two of the most commonly cited evidences for manioc cultivation.

Beach erosion at Cape Kialegak, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, revealed the frozen, naturally mummified body of a 1600 year old Eskimo woman. The body has extensive tattooing on the dorsal aspects of both the right and left forearms, hands and fingers. The tattooing pattern corresponds with known design patterns for the Old Bering Sea phase.

Detailed drawings done by Ezra Stiles in 1761 show that Western Niantic domed wigwams were very like modern Kickapoo and other Northeastern North American aboriginal houses. Adena and Hopewell post molds are consistent with the same type of house.

Plains archaeologists have usually devoted little attention to the bird remains that normally comprise a relatively minor portion of the yield from their excavations. Bird bones from several archaeological sites on the Missouri River are shown to have been purposefully and selectively modified by man. They exhibit a remarkable similarity to prepared bird skins and other ceremonial objects found in Omaha, Osage, Arikara, and other Plains Indian medicine bundles in various museum collections. The ethnographic specimens are believed to identify the archaeological remains as to function; conversely, the archaeological materials add important time perspectives to native use of the ritual items in museum collections and in the documentary record.

Neutron activation analysis of stylistically similar pottery sherds from the Capacha (Colima) and Opeño (Michoacán) phases gives no evidence for trade or interchange of vessels, either from Openo to Colima, or vice versa, or from a third source to both.

In recent discussions by archaeologists who are committed to the scientific nature of archaeology, philosophic commitment to an excessively narrow view of “the scientific method” is common. These narrow conceptions can be broadened, clarified, and made more adequate without diminishing a commitment to scientific archaeology.

The hypothetico-deductive method of confirmation is an oversimplified account of scientific reasoning. There are severe limitations for its application, particularly in archaeology. The deductive-nomological model of scientific explanation likewise has serious drawbacks for explaining the sorts of phenomena which interest archaeologists. Understanding of the problems with this model is hampered by trying to force systems models of explanation into the deductive-nomological mold. Worse still, the separate issues of confirmation and explanation are not kept distinct.

Warfare is seen as an adaptive ecological choice under conditions of population growth and resource limitation. Its major significance in the formation of the state lay in its ability to negate evolutionary constraints inherent in ranked societies. The evolutionary significance of warfare is discussed in terms of processes of cultural change which are largely internal.

The intent of this paper is to criticize contemporary methodology in prehistoric demography and to suggest several new types of archaeological evidence which may be indicative of population growth and population pressure. Standard methodologies have tended to underestimate population growth in pre-agricultural societies and to underestimate the role of population pressure in causing economic change. It is argued that with increased sensitivity to additional sources of evidence, it becomes clear that population growth and population pressure are essentially ubiquitous in the archaeological record and can readily be perceived as leading to economic and technological growth culminating in the origins of agriculture.

D. M. Varner does not make a good case for a continuity in the function of the shoe-form vessels from Oaxaca. In the neighboring Tehuacan Valley during the Late Postclassic and Early Colonial periods, shoe-form vessels served as receptacles for cremated human remains.