Archaeological and ethnohistoric data on the Chimu and Inca empires, two prehistoric Peruvian states that shared a number of organizational features, are used to test the theory of cultural materialism. Materialist explanations of Inca expansionism are evaluated; they are shown to be unconvincing in the Inca case and inapplicable to the Chimu. An alternative model is proposed that emphasizes the role of a particular legal principle, split inheritance. The presence of split inheritance in the two empires is documented. It is argued that in both cases split inheritance originated through manipulation of traditional elements of Andean ideology, was the driving force behind imperial expansion, and generated administrative and economic stresses eventually leading to imperial collapse. This model avoids the flaws of the materialist explanations it is intended to replace, and the theory of cultural materialism is rejected.

Conrad's discussion bears little relation to the generally accepted outline of Peruvian prehistory. He presents evidence that is not evidence in support of a weak and untestable hypothesis. Since he is apparently unacquainted with a substantial body of recent and current research, he has launched superficial and absurd criticisms at the proposition that changes in climate are reflected in changes in human society and culture. Not only is this theory substantiated by a growing number of independent studies, but ironically enough Conrad joins their ranks by supporting my hypothesis about climate and culture in late prehistoric Andean cultures. His shallow arguments opposing cultural materialism do not deal with issues and are far from convincing. Altogether his work appears to belong to a previously unidentified archaeological specialty, the Archaeology of the Absurd.

Sanders and Price, Palerm, Carrasco, and others have argued for the utility of the theoretical formulations of "oriental despotism" and the "Asiatic mode of production" for the investigation and comprehension of Aztec political organization and society. Accordingly, it has been claimed that irrigation played an important role in the consolidation of Aztec states, that no significant private property in land existed among the Aztecs, and that government control of the economy was thoroughgoing and complete. All of these theoretically generated positions are demonstrably false, at least for the important Aztec state of Texcoco. Irrigation played no significant role in the origin or consolidation of the Texcocan state; extensive private property in land did exist among the Texcocans, and the government of Texcoco did not at all dominate the Texcocan economy. Marketing was clearly the principal mechanism within the empire for the transference of goods. The basic principles of Aztec society are to be discovered through objective examination of the ethnohistorical and archaeological data and cannot be determined through the imposition of inappropriate or outmoded theoretical formulations.

Due to excessive adherence to theoretical "first principles" and consequent erroneous superficial textual analyses, Carrasco overstates political control over land and labor and understates the importance of marketing and forces of supply and demand in Aztec economies. The lack of evidence for price regulation and for the enforcement of sumptuary laws is exposed, while other evidence which indicates that the Texcocan (and other) tribute systems depended in many ways on Mesoamerican marketing systems is pointed out. The inadequacies in Carrasco's comments on the scale of Texcocan tribute income are evaluated along with the lack of diachronic depth in his analyses.

Southwestern archaeologists have traditionally devoted much attention to inventory and description of material culture change between the Pithouse and Pueblo periods. Unfortunately, our understanding of the ecological, demographic, and organizational aspects of the Pithouse-to-Pueblo transition is much less advanced. The present study attempts to remedy this deficiency for at least one portion of the Southwest, relying largely on survey data from the Mogollon culture area of extreme western Texas. Three major aspects of Pithouse-to-Pueblo change are considered. These are demographic change, subsistence pattern change, and social-organizational change. Basically, the transition is seen as a fundamental adaptive reorientation in which a small-scale, extensive, generalized adaption is replaced by one which was larger in scale, more intensive, and more specialized in focus than ever before. Factors motivating this transition are considered, and the supra-local applicability of the resulting model is discussed.

The methods of trend surface analysis, a form of regression analysis, are applied to complex archaeological surfaces, or response surfaces, derived from a series of points representing carved stone monuments in the Lowland Classic Maya region bearing the most recent dates. Results of a comparison of trend surface and residual maps produced and of an analysis of variance with expected maps do not support a strong west to east diffusionary trend for the collapse, nor a hypothesized invasion. Evidence is presented indicating the probable existence of five regional zones or sociopolitical spheres in the Late Classic whose existence may bear directly on the collapse through increased competition. The utility of the trend surface model is demonstrated, primarily as a method of formalized data description and as an aid in the building of process-response models.

Spatial and temporal variations in human populations are, to a large extent, determined by the environmentally controlled distribution of biotic and abiotic resources. While archaeologists generally recognize this relationship, many fail to fully appreciate the complexity of either the changing environment, the ecological literature, or applications of ecological data to archaeological problems. It is important to apply modern ecological principles to archaeological problems, but the novelty of the principle should not preclude the nature of the problem to be solved. For example, the concepts of ecotone and edge effect are still applicable to archaeological problems concerning biotic boundaries such as those between forest and grassland even though it may be more appropriate to use an individualistic approach in research designs concerned with diffuse environmental and biotic gradients.

Macroplant remains recovered during excavation and by flotation are an ambiguous record of prehistoric human/plant interactions. This paper attempts to clarify the relationship by considering natural and cultural processes affecting the archaeological survival of seeds recovered from sites. Also outlined are some characteristics of these botanical artifacts useful in distinguishing their source. In addition, brief comments are directed toward the problem of biases in the paleoethnobotanical record.

Midden shell carbonate O-18 profiles are used to estimate the month of shellfish collection. Fourteen molluscan shells from a coastal midden in Baja California were analyzed to demonstrate the potential of the technique for reconstructing settlement patterns. Ancillary information on paleotemperatures is also recovered from the O-18 values.

Ninety-six percent of the obsidians in the valley of Guatemala originate in either the El Chayal or the Chimaltenango source systems. To an established hydration rate for El Chayal obsidian, one for Chimaltenango is added, thus expanding chronometric control to most of the central highlands of Guatemala.

It is suggested that the portrayal of a Maya ruler as lame represents a transformation to the god Tezcatlipoca, sometimes known as "one leg." God K of the manikin scepter is a continued reference to this transformation in Late Classic times.

Within the past 10 to 15 years human remains of great antiquity have been found in archaeological sites located in the highlands and coastal area of central Peru. The remains in this study have assigned radiocarbon dates of 6000-10,000 B.P. and consist of four naturally mummified (desiccated) human bodies and four virtually complete skeletons. They represent some of the oldest skeletal remains and certainly the oldest preserved bodies hitherto found in South America. While the paleopathological and tomographic analyses of the bodies is presently in progress, this report describes the archaeological context of the entire sample and presents a descriptive analysis of the skeletal material. Age, sex, stature, and general pathology are discussed.

A simple, yet objective and replicable method for recording a number of variables of the two-dimensional morphology of artifacts is presented and described. This method permits precise quantification of variables such as artifact shape and area, retouch length along the perimeter of chipped stone tools, measures of convexity or concavity, area and location of cortex, etc. Moreover, it allows for direct comparisons among varied artifact assemblages.

The study of faunal remains from archaeological sites has been described using a variety of terms including: zooarchaeology, archaeozoology, osteoarchaeology, and ethnozoology. With such a broad spectrum of terms in current usage, we feel that the contradictions and errors inherent in some of this nomenclature need to be corrected. We prefer the term zooarchaeology, as a contraction of the word zoologico-archaeology proposed by Lubbock in 1865, to define the study of animal remains from archaeological sites and their relationship to humans.