Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T00:24:34.030Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

New Views on the Fremont: The Fremont and the Sevier: Defining Prehistoric Agriculturalists North of the Anasazi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

David B. Madsen*
Affiliation:
Antiquities Section, Utah Division of State History, Salt Lake City, UT 84101

Abstract

A satisfactory and explicit definition of the Fremont has not been produced in over 50 years of research—a failure which suggests that no comprehensive entity exists. Attempts to define a Fremont through the use of trait lists have failed, although such lists have provided the basis for three apparently conflicting theories of origin. Analyses of subsistence economies and settlement patterns suggest that no comprehensive entity exists and that all three origin theories may possibly be valid. A Sevier "culture," based on marsh collecting and supplemented by corn agriculture, can be defined in the eastern Great Basin. A Fremont "culture," based on corn agriculture and supplemented by hunting, can be defined on the Colorado Plateau. A third unnamed, but possibly Plains-related, culture may be defined to the north of these. These "cultures" are distinctive enough to be separated on the same taxonomic level as are the Anasazi and the Sinagua.

Type
Reports
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1979

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

Aikens, C. Melvin 1966 Fremont-Promontory-Plains relationships. University of Utah Anthropological Papers 82.Google Scholar
Aikens, C. Melvin 1970 Hogup Cave. University of Utah Anthropological Papers 93.Google Scholar
Aikens, C. Melvin 1972 Fremont culture: restatement of some problems. American Antiquity 37:6166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambler, J. Richard 1967 Caldwell Village and Fremont prehistory. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado.Google Scholar
Berry, Michael S. 1972 The Evans site. Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, A Special Report.Google Scholar
Berry, Michael S. 1975 An archaeological survey of the northeast portion of Arches National Park. Antiquities Section Selected Papers 1(3). Utah Division of State History, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Burgh, Robert F., and Scoggin, Charles R. 1948 The archaeology of Castle Park, Dinosaur National Monument. University of Colorado Studies, Seriesin Anthropology 2.Google Scholar
Chamberlin, Ralph V. 1911 The ethno-botany of the Gosiute Indians. Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences Proceedings 63.Google Scholar
Claassen, P. W. 1919 A possible new source of food supply (cat-tail flour). Scientific Monthly 9:169185.Google Scholar
Dalley, Gardiner F. 1972 Palynology of the Evans Mound deposits. In The Evans site, edited by Berry, Michael S.. Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, A Special Report.Google Scholar
Flannery, Kent V. 1968 Archaeological systems theory and early mesoamerica. In Anthropological Archaeology in the Americas, edited by Meggers, Betty J.. Anthropological society of Washington, Washington, D. C.Google Scholar
Gunnerson, James H. 1969 The Fremont culture: a study in culture dynamics on the northern Anasazi frontier. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 59(2).Google Scholar
Harrington, H. D. 1967 Edible native plants of the Rocky Mountains. The University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Hedrick, U. P. (editor) 1919 Sturtevant's notes on edible plants. New York Department of Agriculture Annual Report XXVII 2(2). J. B. Lyon, Albany.Google Scholar
Hill, James N., and Hevly, Richard H. 1968 Pollen at Broken K Pueblo: some new interpretations. American Antiquity 33:200.Google Scholar
Holmer, Richard N., and Weder, Dennis G. 1978 Spacial and temporal distribution of Fremont/Sevier projectile points. Paper presented at the Great Basin Anthropology Conference 1978, Reno.Google Scholar
Jennings, Jesse D. 1974 Prehistory of North America, (second ed.) McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Jennings, Jesse D. et al. 1956 The American Southwest: a problem in cultural isolation. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology 2. (American Antiquity 22(2):Part 2).Google Scholar
Lindsay, La Mar W. 1974 Preliminary palynological studies on Cedar Mesa. In Highway U-95 archaeology: Comb Wash to Grand Flat, Vol. II, edited by Wilson, C. J.. Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, A Special Report. Google Scholar
Lindsay, La Mar W. 1975 Palynological analysis and paleoecology of Innocents Ridge. Antiquities Section Selected Papers 1(2). Utah Division of State History, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Lohse, Ernest S. 1978 Fremont settlement pattern and architectural variation. Paper presented at the Great Basin Anthropology Conference 1978, Reno.Google Scholar
Madsen, David B. 1977 Pollen analysis at agricultural village sites: a test case at Backhoe Village. Paper presented at the42nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Madsen, David B., and Berry, Michael S. 1975 A reassessment of northeastern Great Basin prehistory. American Antiquity 40:391405.Google Scholar
Madsen, David B. and Lindsay, La Mar 1977 Backhoe village, Antiquities Section Selected Papers 4(12). Utah Division of State History, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Marwitt, John P. 1968 Pharo Vilalge. University of Utah Anthropological Papers 91.Google Scholar
Marwitt, John P. 1970 Median Village and Fremont culture regional variation. University of Utah Anthropological Papers 95.Google Scholar
Morss, Noel 1931 The ancient culture of the Fremont River in Utah. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeologyand Ethnology 12(3).Google Scholar
Nielson, Asa A. 1978 Proposed subsistence models for the Sevier culture: Sevier River drainage, west central Utah. Unpublished M. A. thesis, Department of Anthropology, Brigham Young University. Google Scholar
Niering, W. 1966 The life of the marsh, the North American wetlands. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Odum, Eugene P. 1963 Ecology. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York.Google Scholar
Reimold, Robert J., and Queen, William H. 1974 Ecology of halophytes. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Schroedl, Alan R. 1976 The Archaic of the northern Colorado Plateau. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Utah.Google Scholar
Sharrock, Floyd W. 1966 Prehistoric occupation pattern in southwest Wyoming and cultural relationships with the Great Basinand Plains culture areas. University of Utah Anthropological Papers 77.Google Scholar
Steward, Julian H. 1933 Archaeological problems of the northern periphery of the Southwest. Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 5.Google Scholar
Steward, Julian H. 1938 Basin-Plateau aboriginal sociopolitical groups. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 120.Google Scholar
Winter, Joseph C. 1977 Hovenweep 1976. San Jose State University, Department of Anthropology, Archeological Report 3.Google Scholar
Wormington, H. Marie 1955 A reappraisal of the Fremont culture with a summary of the archeology of the northern periphery. Proceedings of the Denver Museum of Natural History 1.Google Scholar