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Moving out of the Archaic on the Edge of the Southwest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael E. Whalen
Michael E. Whalen*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK 74104
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Abstract

The transition from mobile foragers to sedentary farmers was not made to the same degree all over the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The deserts of the Jornada Mogollon region illustrate the persistence of some aspects of mobile adaptations through the first millennium A.D., as both Jornada Archaic peoples and their ceramic-using successors made use of a seasonal mobility pattern to cope with the region's arid conditions. Use of winter base camps and mobility during the rest of the year are apparent in both cases, but important differences can also be detected. This study combines old and new data to show how the two adaptations differed in the extent to which winter camps were used, in type and intensity of winter provisioning strategies, and in patterns of community organization. All these changes are argued to be logical precursors to the short-lived agricultural adaptation that appeared in the area after A.D. 1100. Moreover, such adaptations may characterize a large portion of the desert Southwest and northern Mexico.

Resumen

Resumen

La transición de forrajeros móviles a agricultores sedentarios no occurió en el mismo grado en todas las regiones del suroeste de los Estados Unidos y el norte de México. Los desiertos de la región Jornada Mogollón ilustran la persistencia de ciertos aspectos de las adaptaciones móviles durante el primer milenio D.C. Grupos arcaicos tanto como sus sucesores en la época cerámica usaban una estrategia de movimiento estacional para contender con las condiciones dificiles de la región. Es evidente que ambos casos se caracterizaron por el uso de campamentos base durante el invierno y por movilidad el resto del año, pero aparecieron diferencias importantes en la época cerámica. Datos anteriores y actuales se usan aquí para ilustrar la distinción entre las dos adaptaciones con referenda a la duración de uso de los campamentos de invierno, al tipo e intensidad de estrategias empleadas para proveer provisiones invernales, y a los patrones de organización social. Se sostiene que estos cambios son precursores lógicos de la adaptación agrícola que apareció en la región después de 1100 D.C Finalmente, las adaptaciones que se proponen aquí probablemente caracterizaron a una gran parte del desierto del suroeste de los Estados Unidos y el norte de México.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 59 , Issue 4 , October 1994 , pp. 622 - 638
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1994

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