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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
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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

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