Ortloff, Moseley, and Feldman fail to understand the basics of canal hydraulics and irrigation hydrology. They estimate nonpermissible velocities, calculate a critical state of flow, and assume a discharge without considering the field requirements. Their claim that tectonic movements caused canal abandonment is rejected. There is no geomorphological evidence for such events. Other research is described which indicates that the canal was designed with a stable channel and was intended to transport the required discharge to state fields. Its breakdown is attributed to the effect of a large discharge flowing down a steep slope.

A recent statement by the five authors purports to demonstrate that the fruit we previously identified as ramón was really achiote. This response points out several weaknesses in the five authors' ethnohistorical methodology that makes their identification far less secure. The original aim of our paper is restated to turn discussion away from the minor point of ramón versus achiote.

The Convention on the Law of the Sea, the culminating document of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, received favorable votes from 130 States in April 1982. The United States voted against approval. Articles 149 and 303, which address archaeological and historical objects found in various ocean zones, are compromise measures with ambiguous texts that are subject to interpretation. Archaeologists generally, not simply underwater archaeologists, should be concerned with these provisions because they could set an unfortunate precedent for future international negotiations involving cultural resources, and because they may apply to inundated prehistoric sites as well as to shipwrecks.

Cucurbits were recovered at archaeological sites from three geographical areas: (1) Coastal Peru, (2) the Andean Highlands, and (3) the Andean region of Northern Argentina. Analysis indicates that cucurbits were cultivated in the Coastal Plain of Peru as long ago as 4000–3000 B.C., perhaps longer. Lagenaria siceraria (Mol.) Standl., Cucurbita moschata, Duch. ex Poir, and the perennial squash, C. ficifolia Bouche were among the first cultigens. At a later date C. maxima Duch. is recorded from this area. It is probable that C. moschata and C. ficifolia reached the area from Central America or Mexico. Two sites excavated in the Andean Highlands yielded only limited amounts of cucurbit material, probably because the plants are not adapted to high altitude culture. Only rinds of L. siceraria and a species of Cucurbita were present. Exploration of archaeological sites in Northern Argentina is just commencing as far as cultivated plant materials are concerned, and little has yet been published. My identification of plant materials from excavations in Northern Argentina indicates an abundance of well-preserved C. maxima and L. siceraria.

Hieroglyphic and comparative linguistic evidence indicate that a Lowland Maya stela cult had been in existence, with monuments being erected predominantly or exclusively at the end of the 360-day year, in Late Preclassic times. These data corroborate Hammond's (1982) evidence for Late Preclassic stela erection. With his demonstration that the stela cult was associated with public architecture and a sacrificial burial at Cuello, the inference that contemporaneous stelae were erected primarily at year-endings establishes the complete Lowland Maya form of the stela cult well before the end of the Late Preclassic. It indicates that the cult was contemporaneous with Pacific coastal and adjacent highland stela cults, and developed at least partially in independence of the latter.

Antithetical premises of a static versus dynamic Andean landscape produce contradictory interpretations of the Chicama-Moche Intervalley Canal. On a static landscape, inoperable canal gradients must be explained by social parameters such as poor surveying or construction techniques. The paradigm of Plate Tectonics and evidence of ongoing crustal convergence support an alternative premise of continuous, gradual landscape alteration and ground slope change. This premise provides a physical explanation for why abandoned canals often exhibit uphill gradients and ancient monuments are frequently not level. However, this premise also requires that complex methods in the engineering analysis of slope-altered structures be made explicit. Assessment of landscape alteration utilizes basic principles of physical geology, but their application to a particular study area must take local conditions into consideration. Similarly, analysis of the hydraulic properties of an irrigation canal utilizes basic principles of fluid dynamics, but local conditions must be considered in deciding which formulas to use and how to apply them. Improper application of geological principles and hydraulic equations has led our critics to incorrect results.

A critique of the methods of locational analysis used by Carmack and Weeks (1981) at the Maya site of Chisalin, Guatemala is presented. The applicability of the “nearest neighbor” statistic to this densely occupied hilltop site is questioned, as is its use to discriminate architectural groups.

As president of the Society for American Archaeology. Richard E. W. Adams chose his Incoming Remarks to challenge other archaeological societies. As past president of the Society of Professional Archeologists. I question some of Adams's recollections and assertions. I reject his implied conclusions and argue that, although limited, SOPA has performed far more successfully than could have been expected. Finally, I suggest that the ideal relationship between the SAA and SOPA is neither competitive nor parasitic, but symbiotic.

This paper presents a critical assessment of Killingley's approach to the determination of month of collection of marine molluscs by prehistoric people. The basis of the method is careful oxygen isotope measurements made in successive growth increments in the shells. We have analyzed specimens of Monodonta and Patella collected live on the coast of northern Spain, in conjunction with seasonality studies on molluscs from prehistoric sites in the neighborhood. These studies confirm the necessity of making careful analyses of each species under consideration. Given the significance both of interspecies differences and of climatic variability on timescales from a year upwards (particularly important in Killingley's area), we conclude that his apparent accuracy of ± a month is illusory.

Braun and Plog's approach to understanding change in “tribal” social networks is critiqued with respect to (1) certain bridging arguments about the social meaning of particular evidential trends, and (2) certain conceptual biases regarding the nature of “tribal” social relations. Aspects of an alternative strategy for making sense of “tribal” social dynamics are discussed.

Archaeologists recently have been focusing increased attention on Native American concerns and archaeology. However, some serious issues of Native American attitudes toward the activities of archaeology have so far been overlooked. For example, in the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico, archaeological activities that have been spurred by energy development violate certain tenets of the Navajo Way of living, with possible adverse effects. Suggestions for the mitigation of these effects are presented as a way of expanding the dialogue between archaeologists and Native American communities, in order to identify and resolve such ethical dilemmas.

Bettinger and Baumhoff proposed an explanation for the spread of Numic language groups in the prehistoric Great Basin by appeal to models of optimal foraging and the processes of adaptive competition. In an effort to continue their discussion, I offer comments on their selection and use of Great Basin archaeological evidence, and their use of optimal foraging models. Finally, I identify other problems amenable to their general perspective.

A response is presented to the comment by Bailey et al. on the determination of seasonality of mollusk collecting using O-18 profiles of midden shells. Profiles were measured on two species of intertidal mollusks (Tegula funebralis and Collisella limatula) to provide further evidence for the applicability of the technique to seasonality studies.

A review of the obsidian hydration rates proposed for California obsidian sources raises questions of both practical and theoretical nature about the use of obsidian dating. Obsidian hydration rates so far proposed (primarily but not exclusively by Jonathon Ericson) require careful evaluation and checking against empirical data; routine use of the preliminary rates ignores cautions raised by the investigators and can lead to inaccurate chronological determinations. Used with discrimination, however, obsidian dating does yield chronological ages in which there can be a reasonable degree of confidence.

Lewis R. Binford has recently disputed the inference, advanced in Behavioral Archeology, that the inhabitants of the Joint Site hunted more often during the last years of the site's occupation. As an alternative he suggests that the site was used after abandonment as a hunting camp. These conclusions, which stem from a misunderstanding of the nature and purpose of the analytic units employed in the Joint Site study, are shown to be without substantial foundation.

Criticisms of our model of the recent spread of Numic speakers into the Great Basin center on the ambiguity of linguistic evidence and apparent similarities between Numic and Prenumic settlement and subsistence patterns. We argue that the linguistic data are only one part of a larger body of ethnographic data that support the hypothesized spread of Numic speakers and that the adaptive similarities noted between Numic and Prenumic are only of the broadest sort and do not vitiate the assumptions of our model. In particular, we suggest that it is the intensity with which a resource is used, not the mere use of that resource, which is important in understanding competitive replacement among adaptive strategies.

Contrary to Weaver's conclusion, no trend in either nutritionally related or infection-related pathologies can be demonstrated in skeletons from different time periods at Casas Grandes.

Further consideration of the Pecos data reveals two important limitations to paleodemographic reconstruction. First, a significant bias in the age profile of the ceramically dated portion of the skeletal sample raises doubts about the suitability of these data for diachronic studies. Second, Ruff has shown that the original adult ages given for Pecos were systematically overestimated. This biases the age profile and variously affects life table values.