The Late Archaic across the Borderlands: From Foraging to Farming

345 Pages·2005·3.76 MB·English

by  Bradley J. Vierra

the late archaic across the borderlands
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Texas Archaeology and Ethnohistory Series
Thomas R. Hester, editor
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THE LATE ARCHAIC
across the Borderlands
From Foraging to Farming
Edited by Bradley J. Vierra

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS AUSTIN
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Copyright © 2005 by the University of Texas Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 2005
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(cid:1)(cid:1)The paper used in this book meets the minimum
requirements of ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (r1997)
(Permanence of Paper).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Late Archaic across the Borderlands : from foraging to
farming /
edited by Bradley J. Vierra. — 1st ed.
p. cm. — (Texas archaeology and ethnohistory series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 0-292-70669-3 (cl. : alk. paper)
1. Indians of Mexico—Mexican-American Border Region—Antiquities. 2. Indians
of North America—Mexican-American Border Region—Antiquities. 3. Indians of
Mexico—Agriculture—Mexican-American Border Region. 4. Indians of North America—
Agriculture—Mexican-American Border Region. 5. Hunting and gathering societies—
Mexican-American Border Region. 6. Excavations (Archaeology)—Mexican-American Border
Region. 7. Mexican-American Border Region—Antiquities. I. Vierra, Bradley J. II. Series.
f1219.1.m63l38 2005
972(cid:2).101
2005008323
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To
Lewis R. Binford,
Lawrence G. Straus,
and
Cynthia Irwin-Williams
for teaching me about
hunter-gatherer archaeology
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contents
Foreword by Richard I. Ford ix
Preface by Thomas R. Hester xiii
Acknowledgments xv
chapter 1. Borderlands Introduction 1
Bradley J. Vierra
chapter 2. The Late Archaic/Early Agricultural Period in Sonora, Mexico 13
John P. Carpenter, Guadalupe Sánchez, and
María Elisa Villalpando C.
chapter 3. Changing Knowledge and Ideas about the
First Farmers in Southeastern Arizona 41
Jonathan B. Mabry
chapter 4. A Biological Reconstruction of Mobility
Patterns in Late Archaic Populations 84
Marsha D. Ogilvie
chapter 5. Environmental Constraints on Forager Mobility and the Use of
Cultigens in Southeastern Arizona and Southern New Mexico 113
William H. Doleman
chapter 6. The Transition to Farming on the Río Casas Grandes
and in the Southern Jornada Mogollon Region 141
Robert J. Hard and John R. Roney
chapter 7. Late Archaic Stone Tool Technology across the Borderlands 187
Bradley J. Vierra
chapter 8. Late Archaic Foragers of Eastern Trans-Pecos
Texas and the Big Bend 219
Robert J. Mallouf
vii
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chapter 9. Ecological Factors Affecting the Late Archaic
Economy of the Lower Pecos River Region 247
Phil Dering
chapter 10. An Overview of the Late Archaic in Southern Texas 259
Thomas R. Hester
chapter 11. Many Perspectives But a Consistent Pattern:
Comments on Contributions 279
R. G. Matson
chapter 12. Documenting the Transition to Food
Production along the Borderlands 300
Bruce D. Smith
Contributors 317
Index 319
viii contents
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foreword
Richard I. Ford
university of michigan
the borderlands has a signifi cant place in the study of Archaic lifeways
by archaeologists. First, the region was noted for its exceptional preservation
of artifacts, plant remains, and painted panoramas found in rockshelters. Then
the area was ignored for its seemingly long period of cultural stasis, when noth-
ing appeared to happen. Today the region has reemerged because of its stra-
tegic position in the introduction of domesticated plant horticulture into the
Southwest. Bradley J. Vierra’s important “Borderlands Introduction” becomes
our indispensable archaeological guide to the Borderlands and highlights the
cultural signifi cance of the region, its variation, and the cultural changes it
experienced over time.
At the end of the Pleistocene most of North America witnessed millen-
nia of biotic changes as plants migrated from southern refugia to colonize
postglacial landscapes or to replace a slowly dying Pleistocene biota. North of
the Red River in Texas the bulk of the edible biomass for the nomadic, post-
Paleoindian hunters and foragers consisted of animal products. While increas-
ing in density, most plants were widely scattered and seasonal in edible produc-
tion. Consequently, human density was low. In the Borderlands, however, the
useful energy mass was greater than in the remainder of the continent, human
population density was the highest for North America, and cultural expres-
sion that was unknown elsewhere blossomed. Most of this is preserved as rock
art and museum-quality perishable containers. But this short-lived “cultural
fl orescence,” based on deer, rabbits, other desert mammals, cacti fruits, and
some nuts, was soon surpassed by the much higher edible biomass found to
the north and east, where plant and animal diversity and productivity could
support larger and denser populations of animals and humans.
In the Borderlands the human cultures continued the nomadic habits of
their immediate ancestors. Through the ensuing centuries the archaeologi-
cal record confi rmed regional cultural variation but not the cultural excite-
ment of the Early Archaic. By the Late Archaic technological, subsistence, and
ix
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