Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T06:57:22.688Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sedentarization and Agricultural Dependence: Perspectives from the Pithouse-to-Pueblo Transition in the American Southwest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Thomas R. Rocek
Thomas R. Rocek*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The pithouse-to-pueblo transition in the southwestern United States is widely viewed as a period combining increasing sedentism and agricultural dependence. This paper argues that sedentarization and degree of agricultural dependence need not be directly linked across the transition, and that two kinds of preservational biases influence the appearance of a linkage. First, sample size effects result from better archaeobotanical preservation at large, relatively sedentary pueblos, compared to pithouse settlements that are often smaller and less intensively occupied. Second, differences in storage technology increase the likelihood of carbonization of domesticates at pueblos. Quantitative paleoethno-botanical data from the Dunlap-Salazar pithouse site and Robinson site pueblo in south-central New Mexico illustrate these problems. Dunlap-Salazar has lower quantities of domesticates in its flotation samples than Robinson pueblo. When preservational differences are taken into account using ratios or ubiquity counts, however, the contrast between the sites disappears. These findings have methodological implications, suggesting that casual qualitative or even quantitative comparisons between pueblo and pithouse sites in the Southwest (or analogous sites in other parts of the world) may be misleading. The results also suggest that the commonly accepted direct association between lower mobility and higher dependence on crops in pueblos in contrast to pithouse sites requires reevaluation.

Resumen

Resumen

En el suroeste de los Estados Unidos la transición de residencia en casas semisubterráneas a pueblos es ampliamente vista como un perίodo de incremento en sedentarismo y dependencia en la agricultura. Este artίculo argumenta que el proceso de sedentarización y grado de dependencia en la agricultura no están necesariamente ligados a la mencionada transición, y que la apariencia de estar ligados puede ser el resultado de la suerte de la preservación de materiales. Primero, materiales etnobotánicos están major preservados en pueblos grandes y relativamente sedentarios, en comparación con asentamientos semisubterráneos más pequeños y de ocupaciones menos intensivas. Segundo, las diferencias en la tecnologίa de almacenamiento incrementan la probabilidad de que los cultίgenos sean carbonizados en los pueblos. Datos paleobotánicos cuantitativos del sitio semisubterráneo Dunlap-Salazar y el pueblo Robinson en el centro-sur de Nuevo México son usados para ilustrar estos problemás. Las muestras de flotación de Dunlap-Salazar contienen cantidades menores de cultίgenos que aquéllas del pueblo Robinson. No obstante, cuando se toma en consideración las diferencias de preservación usando proporciones o cuentas de ubicuidad, el contraste entre estos sitios desaparece. Estos hallazgos tienen implicaciones metodológicas, que sugieren que comparaciónes causales cualitativas o cuantitativas entre estos dos tipos de sitios en el Suroeste (o sitios semejantes en otros lugares del mundo) son engañosas. También sugieren que la comunmente aceptada asociación entre menor mobilidad y mayor dependencia de cultigenos en pueblos en contraste con sitios semisubterráneos necesita ser reevaluada

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , April 1995 , pp. 218 - 239
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Adams, K. R. 1987 Domesticated and Native Plants Recovered from Robinson Pueblo and Other Regional Sites in the Capitan, New Mexico Area. Ms. on file, Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta.Google Scholar
Adams, K. R. 1991a Domesticated and Native Plants Recovered from Robinson Pueblo and Other Regional Sites in the Capitan Area of New Mexico. In Mogollon V, edited by Beckett, P. H., pp. 220–228. COAS Publishing and Research, Las Cruces, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Adams, K. R. 1991b Analysis' of Plant Remains from LA51344, The Dunlap-Salazar Site, Lincoln County, New Mexico. Final Report. Ms. on file, Department of Anthropology, University of Delaware, Newark.Google Scholar
Allen, M. A. 1989 Archaeobotanical Assemblages from the Anahulu Rockshelters. In Prehistoric Hawaiian Occupation in the Anahulu Valley, O'ahu Island : Excavations in Three Inland Rockshelters, edited by V. Kirch, Patrick, pp. 83–110. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility No. 47, Archaeological Research Facility, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O., and Belfer-Cohen, A. 1989 The Origins of Sedentism and Farming Communities in the Levant. Journal of World Prehistory 3 : 447–498.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O., and Belfer-Cohen, A. 1992 From Foraging to Farming in the Mediterranean Levant. In Transitions to Agriculture in Prehistory, edited by Gebauer, A. B. and Price, T. D., pp. 21–48. Prehistory Press, Madison, Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Blomberg, B. 1983 Mobility and Sedentism : The Navajo of Black Mesa, Arizona. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Research Paper No. 32, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Calamia, M. A. 1991 Ground Stone Variability Among Jornada Mogollon Sites and Its Implications for Interpreting Residential Mobility. In Mogollon V, edited by Beckett, P. H., pp. 119–132. COAS Publishing and Research, Las Cruces, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Carmichael, D. L. 1981 Non-residential Occupation of the Prehistoric Southern Tularosa Basin, New Mexico. In The Artifact : Archaeological Essays in Honor of Mark Wimberly, edited by Foster, M. S., pp. 51–68. Special issue, vol. 19, nos. 3 & 4. El Paso Archaeological Society, El Paso, Texas.Google Scholar
Carmichael, D. L. 1985 Pithouse to Pueblo Transition in the Jornada Mogollon : A Reappraisal. In The Artifact : Proceedings of the Third Jornada Mogollon Conference, edited by Foster, M. S. and C, T.. O' Laughlin, pp. 109–118. Special issue, vol. 23, nos. 1 & 2. El Paso Archaeological Society, El Paso, Texas.Google Scholar
Cordell, L. S. 1984 Prehistory of the Southwest. Academic Press, Orlando, Florida.Google Scholar
Cordell, L. S., and Plog, F. 1979 Escaping the Confines of Normative Thought : A Reevaluation of Puebloan Prehistory. American Antiquity 44 : 405–429.Google Scholar
Cushing, F. H. 1920 Zuni Breadstuff. Indian Notes and Monographs 8. Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York.Google Scholar
DeBoer, W. R. 1988 Subterranean Storage and the Organization of Surplus : The View From Eastern North America. Southeastern Archaeology 7(1) : 1–20.Google Scholar
Decker, K. W., and Tieszen, L. L. 1989 Isotopic Reconstruction of Mesa Verde Diet from Basketmaker III to Pueblo III. The Kiva 55 : 33–48.Google Scholar
Edwards, P. C. 1989a Problems of Recognizing Earliest Sedentism : The Natufian Example. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 2 : 5–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, P. C. 1989b Revising the Broad Spectrum Revolution : And Its Role in the Origins of Southwest Asian Food Production. Antiquity 63(239) : 225–246.Google Scholar
Gilman, P. A. 1987 Architecture as Artifact : Pit Structures and Pueblos in the American Southwest. American Antiquity 52 : 538–564.Google Scholar
Glassow, M. A. 1984 Explaining Variations in Agricultural Settlement Systems in Northeastern New Mexico. In Prehistoric Agricultural Strategies in the Southwest, edited by Fish, S. K. and Fish, P. R., pp. 199–214. Anthropological Research Papers No. 33, Arizona State University, Tempe.Google Scholar
Grayson, D. K. 1984 Quantitative Zooarchaeology; Topics in the Analysis of Archaeological Faunas. Academic Press, Orlando, Florida.Google Scholar
Gross, G. T. 1987 Anasazi Storage Facilities in the Dolores Region, Colorado : A. D. 600-920. Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Washington State University. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Gross, G. T. 1992 Subsistence Change and Architecture : Anasazi Storerooms in the Dolores Region, Colorado. In Long-Term Subsistence Change in Prehistoric North America, edited by Croes, D. R., Hawkins, R. A., and Isaac, B. L., pp. 121–265. Research in Economic Anthropology, Supplement 6, JAI Press, Greenwich, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Hally, D. J. 1981 Plant Preservation and the Content of Paleobotanical Samples : A Case Study. American Antiquity 46 : 723–742.Google Scholar
Hard, R. J. 1990 Agriculture Dependence in the Mountain Mogollon. In Perspectives on Southwestern Prehistory, edited by Minnis, P. E. and Redman, C. L., pp. 135–149. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado.Google Scholar
Hill, W. W. 1982 An Ethnography of Santa Clara Pueblo New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Hough, W. 1918 The Hopi Indian Collection in the United States National Museum. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 54(2231) : 235–296. Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Kadane, J. B. 1988 Possible Statistical Contributions to Paleoethnobotany. In Current Paleoethnobotany; Analytical Methods and Cultural Interpretations of Archaeological Plant Remains, edited by Hastorf, C. A. and Popper, V. S., pp. 206–222. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Katzenberg, M. A., and Kelley, J. H. 1991 Stable Isotope Analysis of Prehistoric Bone from the Sierra Blanca Region of New Mexico. In Mogollon V, edited by Beckett, P. H., pp. 207–219. COAS Publishing and Research, Las Cruces, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Kelley, J. H. 1984 The Archaeology of the Sierra Blanca Region of Southeastern New Mexico. Anthropological Papers No. 74, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Kelley, J. H. 1991 An Overview of the Capitan North Project. In Mogollon V, edited by Beckett, P. H., pp. 166–176. COAS Publishing and Research, Las Cruces, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Kintigh, K. W. 1984 Measuring Archaeological Diversity by Comparison with Simulated Assemblages. American Antiquity 49 : 44–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lange, C. H. 1959 Cochiti : A New Mexico Pueblo, Past and Present. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Lightfoot, K. G. 1984 The Duncan Project : A Study of the Occupation Duration and Settlement Pattern of an Early Mogollon Pithouse Village. Arizona State University Anthropological Field Studies No. 6, Tempe.Google Scholar
Lightfoot, K. G., and Plog, F. 1984 Intensification Along the North Side of the Mogollon Rim. In Prehistoric Agricultural Strategies in the Southwest, edited by Fish, S. K. and Fish, P. R., pp. 179–195. Anthropological Research Papers No. 33, Arizona State University, Tempe.Google Scholar
Martin, P. S. 1979 Prehistory : Mogollon. In Southwest, edited by Ortiz, A., pp. 61–74. Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 9, Sturtevant, W. C., general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Matson, R. G., and Chisholm, B. 1991 Basketmaker II Subsistence : Carbon Isotopes and Other Dietary Indicators from Cedar Mesa, Utah. American Antiquity 56 : 444–459.Google Scholar
Matthews, M. H. 1986 The Dolores Archaeological Program Macrobotanical Data Base : Resource Availability and Mix. In Dolores Archaeological Program : Final Synthetic Report, compiled by Breternitz, D. A., Robinson, C. K., and Gross, G. T., pp. 151–184. U. S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Engineering and Research Center, Denver, Colorado. Distributed by the National Technical Information Service, Operations Division, Springfield, Virginia.Google Scholar
Mauldin, R. 1991 Agricultural Intensification in the Mogollon Highlands. In Mogollon V, edited by Beckett, P. H., pp. 62–71. COAS Publishing and Research, Las Cruces, New Mexico.Google Scholar
McGuire, R. H., and Schiffer, M. B. 1983 A Theory of Architectural Design. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 2 : 277–303.Google Scholar
Miller, N. F. 1988 Ratios in Paleoethnobotanical Analysis. In Current Paleoethnobotany; Analytical Methods and Cultural Interpretations of Archaeological Plant Remains, edited by Hastorf, C. A. and Popper, V. S., pp. 72–85. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Minnis, P. E. 1985 Social Adaptation to Food Stress : A Prehistoric Southwestern Example. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Minnis, P. E. 1989 Prehistoric Diet in the Northern Southwest : Macroplant Remains from Four Corners Feces. American Antiquity 54 : 543–563.Google Scholar
Murdock, G. P. 1969 Correlations of Exploitive and Settlement Patterns. In Contributions to Anthropology : Ecological Essays, edited by Damas, D., pp. 129–150. National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 230, Ottawa, Ontario.Google Scholar
Nelson, M. C, and Lippmeier, H. 1993 Grinding-Tool Design as Conditioned by Land-Use Pattern. American Antiquity 58 : 286-305.Google Scholar
O' Laughlin, T. C. 1981 The Roth Site : A Pithouse Site in the Mesilla Valley of Southern New Mexico. In The Artifact : Archaeological Essays in Honor of Mark Wimberly, edited by Foster, M. S., pp. 133–149. Special issue, vol. 19, nos. 3 & 4. El Paso Archaeological Society, El Paso, Texas.Google Scholar
Pearsall, D. M. 1988 Interpreting the Meaning of Macroremain Abundance : The Impact of Source and Context. In Current Paleoethnobotany : Analytical Methods and Cultural Interpretations of Archaeological Plant Remains, edited by Hastorf, C. A. and Popper, V. S., pp. 97–118. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Petersen, K. L. 1992 Temporal Patterns in Resource Use. In Dolores Archaeological Program : Final Synthetic Report, compiled by Breternitz, D. A., Robinson, C. K., and Gross, G. T., pp. 184–199. U. S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Engineering and Research Center, Denver, Colorado. Distributed by the National Technical Information Service, Operations Division, Springfield, Virginia.Google Scholar
Plog, F. T. 1974 The Study of Prehistoric Change. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Plog, F. T. 1979 Prehistory : Western Anasazi. In Southwest, edited by Ortiz, A., pp. 108–130. Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 9, Sturtevant, W. C., general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Popper, V. S. 1988 Selecting Quantitative Measurements in Paleoethnobotany. In Current Paleoethnobotany; Analytical Methods and Cultural Interpretations of Archaeological Plant Remains, edited by Hastorf, C. A. and Popper, V. S., pp. 53–71. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Reed, P. F. 1987 Reinterpreting Jornada Mogollon Prehistory. North American Archaeologist 8 : 193–208.Google Scholar
Rocek, T. R. 1990 Examining the Pithouse to Pueblo Transition : The Dunlap-Salazar Site, LA 51344, in South-Central New Mexico. Paper presented at the 55th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Las Vegas, Nevada.Google Scholar
Rocek, T. R. 1991 Research at LA 51344, The Dunlap-Salazar Pithouse Site, near Lincoln, New Mexico. In Mogollon V, edited by Beckett, P. H., pp. 106–118. COAS Publishing and Research, Las Cruces, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Rocek, T. R. 1995 Sedentism and Mobility in the Southwest. In Interpreting Southwestern Diversity : Underlying Principles and Overarching Patterns, edited by Fish, P. and Reid, J. .. Arizona State University Anthropological Papers, Arizona State University Press, Tempe, in press.Google Scholar
Sebastian, L., and Larralde, S. 1989 Living on the Land : 11, 000 Years of Human Adaptation in Southwestern New Mexico. Cultural Resources Series No. 6, New Mexico Bureau of Land Management, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Seward, G. L. 1983 You Just Can't Keep Them Down on the Farm. In Proceedings of the Anasazi Symposium 1981, edited by Smith, J. E., pp. 155–160. Mesa Verde Museum Association, Mesa Verde, Colorado. State Engineer Office Google Scholar
Seward, G. L. 1956 Climatological Summary : New Mexico Precipitation 1849-1954. Technical Report No. 6, State of New Mexico, State Engineer Office, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Stevenson, M. C. 1915 Ethnobotany of the Zuni Indians. 30th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology for the Years 1908-1909, pp. 31–102. Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Stewart, J. D., Driver, J. C., and Kelley, J. H. 1991 The Capitan North Project : Chronology. In Mogollon V, edited by Beckett, P. H., pp. 177–190. COAS Publishing and Research, Las Cruces, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Stuart, D. E., and Farwell, R. E. 1983 Out of Phase : Late Pithouse Occupation in the Highlands of New Mexico. In High-Altitude Adaptations in the Southwest, edited by Winter, J. C., pp. 115–158. Cultural Resources Management Report No. 2, USDA Forest Service, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Sullivan, A. P. Ill 1992 Pinyon Nuts and Other Wild Resources in Western Anasazi Subsistence Economies. In Long-Term Subsistence Change in Prehistoric North America, edited by Croes, D. R., Hawkins, R. A., and Isaac, B. L., pp. 195–239. Research in Economic Anthropology, Supplement 6, JAI Press, Greenwich, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Tierney, G. 1971 The Glencoe Project : Botanical Survey of the Glencoe Sites. Museum of New Mexico, Laboratory of Anthropology Notes, 68-b. Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Whalen, M. E. 1981 Cultural-Ecological Aspects of the Pithouse-to-Pueblo Transition in a Portion of the Southwest. American Antiquity 46 : 75–92.Google Scholar
Wills, W. H., and Huckell, B. 1994 Economic Implications of Changing Land-Use Patterns in the Late Archaic. In Themes in Southwest Prehistory, edited by Gumerman, G. J., pp. 33-52. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Wills, W. H., and Windes, T. C. 1989 Evidence for Population Aggregation and Dispersal During the Basketmaker III Period in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. American Antiquity 54 : 347–369.Google Scholar