Dynamics of Southwest Prehistory

Preface

xiv Foreword interest in questions relating to the larger pattern ofsouthwestern prehistory and the direction of its development. Each participant was asked to prepare a paper on the cultural sequence of his or her area and to consider several additional topics relating to that specific region: (1) the nature of population dynamics and sedentism ; (2) the function and organizational significance of the large sites; (3) the main causes of culture change not related to environmental factors; (4) the social and political implications of major alterations in settlement patterns; (5) the balance between resource utilization and carrying capacity and its effects on demographic change; and (6) the special features of organization, adaptation, and change emerging from work in the region, which would illuminate our understanding of southwestern prehistory as a whole. Each paper was circulated prior to the seminar and read by all other participants so that no further presentation was necessary when the seminar began. The first half of the week's discussion was spent in systematically and critically examining each paper. This process led to questions requiring additional data, clarification of interpretations, and inevitably to the introduction of broader problems that were pursued in a preliminary way and then set aside for later consideration. When the critique of the individual areal sequences had been completed, topics relevant to the whole Southwest, which had arisen in the course ofthe earlier discussions, were then methodically reviewed. Linda S. Cordell, then of the University of New Mexico, presented the major paper on the Northern Rio Grande, and in the general discussion considered the role of migration as opposed to in situ cultural change. Jeffrey S. Dean of the Laboratory ofTree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona dealt with the Kayenta and the effects of climate on changes in population and culture. Paul R. Fish ofArizona State Museum at the University of Arizona handled the Hohokam and discussed Mesoamerican influences in the Southwest. George J. Gumerman from Southern nIinois University was assigned the topic of the Black Mesa-Hopi region. James W. Judge, then head of the Nationcl Park Service, Chaco Center, at the University of New Mexico, wrote a paper on the Chaco Canyon area. Steven LeBlanc of the Southwest Museum wrote two papers for the seminar, one on the Cibola area and another on the Mimbres Valley, and Fred Plog from New Mexico State University considered the Sinagua of north-central Arizona. J. Jefferson Reid from the University ofArizona was the key participant on the Mountain Mogollon, and Arthur H. Rohn from Wichita State University, covered the Mesa Verde and the general time period from A.D. 1050 to 1150. Foreword xv Douglas W. Schwartz of the School of American Research served as organizer and chairman of the seminar. At the end of the critique of papers and the considerations of selected topics, Gregory A. Johnson from Hunter College, City University of New York, served as general discussant with special responsibility for conunenting on the Southwest as a region and the factors relating to the trajectory of its organizational change in comparison to other areas, such as the Near East. During the last day of the seminar, an overall conceptual model of southwestern prehistory was developed. In this endeavor, the participants set aside the uniqueness of the individual sequences and focused on the conunonalities of development. The goal was to determine whether a pattern ofcultural development could be identified that characterized the entire Southwest from the beginnings of agriculture to the time of the Spanish entrada. The result of this exercise was both provocative and productive for understanding the totality of southwestern prehistory. It also raised additional questions regarding the interpretation of some of the areal sequences and boldly laid open the lack of critical data in other. The National Endowment for the Humanities made the seminar possible through a grant to the School for a series of meetings on southwestern anthropology (R*1054-79). I gratefully acknowledge this support and hope the results justify the trust they showed in this endeavor. Jeton Brown, the School's executive secretary, ensured that all details were in order before the seminar participants arrived; she has our greatest thanks for her efficiency. Joe Sweeney, the School's physical plant supervisor, and his crew completed a new bedroom addition on the Seminar House just prior to the meeting, making our stay doubly enjoyable. All the seminar participants are grateful to Jane Baberousse, the manager of the School's seminar house. She has our thanks...