Eggshell and the archaeological record: new insights into turkey husbandry in the American Southwest

2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (10) ◽  
pp. 1610-1621 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Bradley Beacham ◽  
Stephen R. Durand
Keyword(s):  
American Southwest ◽  
Archaeological Record

The Evolution of Social Behavior in the Prehistoric American Southwest

2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
George J. Gumerman ◽  
Alan C. Swedlund ◽  
Jeffrey S. Dean ◽  
Joshua M. Epstein
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Quantitative Reconstruction ◽  
Black Mesa ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Alluvial Geomorphology

Long House Valley, located in the Black Mesa area of northeastern Arizona (USA), was inhabited by the Kayenta Anasazi from circa 1800 B.C. to circa A.D. 1300. These people were prehistoric precursors of the modern Pueblo cultures of the Colorado Plateau. A rich paleoenvironmental record, based on alluvial geomorphology, palynology, and dendroclimatology, permits the accurate quantitative reconstruction of annual fluctuations in potential agricultural production (kg maize/hectare). The archaeological record of Anasazi farming groups from A.D. 200 to 1300 provides information on a millennium of sociocultural stasis, variability, change, and adaptation. We report on a multi-agent computational model of this society that closely reproduces the main features of its actual history, including population ebb and flow, changing spatial settlement patterns, and eventual rapid decline. The agents in the model are monoagriculturalists, who decide both where to situate their fields and where to locate their settlements.

Archaeological Visibility and the Underclass of Southwestern Prehistory

1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steadman Upham
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Development ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
Developmental Sequences ◽  
Low Visibility ◽  
Minor Significance ◽  
Discontinuous Model

Archaeologists interpreting the patterns of prehistory in the American Southwest have been influenced dramatically by the obtrusiveness of certain kinds of archaeological remains and by the remarkable record of continuity they suggest. Low-visibility archaeological remains and discontinuous developmental sequences have been accorded only minor significance in southwestern prehistory, in spite of the fact that occupational "discontinuities" are evident in the archaeological record of many regions. In this paper, two examples are presented to show how low-visibility archaeological remains support a discontinuous model of cultural development on the Colorado Plateaus.

Perception and Interpretation in Contemporary Southwestern Archaeology: Comments on Cordell, Upham, and Brock

1989 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 802-814 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Jefferson Reid ◽  
Michael B. Schiffer ◽  
Stephanie M. Whittlesey ◽  
Madeleine J. Hinkes ◽  
Alan P. Sullivan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
American Southwest ◽  
Recent Effort ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Southwestern Archaeology

A recent effort in archaeological critique by Cordell et al. (1987) is undermined by confusion, misunderstanding, and misrepresentation. This comment on their paper illustrates how confusion may arise when the literature of the American Southwest is not read carefully and the causes of variability in the archaeological record are understood incompletely.

scholarly journals Contextualizing Ancestral Pueblo Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo spp.) Management

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyler Conrad
Keyword(s):  
Meleagris Gallopavo ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Ancestral Pueblo ◽  
Global Perspectives ◽  
Animal Management ◽  
Human Management ◽  
Human Animal

AbstractPenning turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo spp.) in the Ancestral Pueblo American Southwest/Mexican Northwest (SW/NW) involved the creation or use of a variety of spaces and contexts throughout AD 1–1600 and into the post-contact era. Turkey pens, or captivity, occur through simple tethering, reuse of abandoned pit houses or surface rooms, or creation of pens within villages, plazas, and elsewhere. Turkey dung, droppings, and eggshells are fundamental for determining the presence or absence of pens at archaeological sites. In this paper, I review the archaeological record for turkey pens and focus on three main questions: (1) how are turkey pens identified in the SW/NW, (2) if turkey pen construction or evidence for turkey captivity shifts through time, and (3) what the record of turkey penning informs us regarding the long-term human management of these birds and global perspectives on human–bird/human–animal management. Ancestral Pueblo peoples created an adaptive and flexible strategy for turkey penning, which successfully integrated these birds into ceremonial and socioeconomic processes for approximately 1600 years.

Testing for Mississippian Period Turkey Management in the Archaeological Record of the Southeastern United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Erin Kennedy Thornton ◽  
Tanya Peres ◽  
Kelly Ledford Chase ◽  
Brian M. Kemp ◽  
Ryan Frome ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Southeastern United States ◽  
Meleagris Gallopavo ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Intensive Management ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Mississippian Period ◽  
Dna Analyses ◽  
Combined Data

People living in Mesoamerica and what is now the eastern and southwestern United States used turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) as sources of meat, eggs, bones, and feathers. Turkey husbandry and domestication are confirmed in two of these regions (Mesoamerica and the American Southwest), but human-turkey interactions in Eastern North American (eastern United States and Canada) are not fully explored. We apply stable isotope (δ13C, δ15N) and ancient mitochondrial DNA analyses to archaeofaunal samples from seven sites in the southeastern United States to test whether turkeys were managed or captively reared. These combined data do not support prolonged or intensive captive rearing of turkeys, and evidence for less intensive management is ambiguous. More research is warranted to determine whether people managed turkeys in these areas, and whether this is generalizable. Determining whether turkeys were managed or reared in the southeastern United States helps define cultural and environmental factors related to turkey management or husbandry throughout North America. This inquiry contributes to discussion of the roles of intensified human-animal interactions in animal domestication.

scholarly journals FROM LANDSCAPES OF MEANING TO LANDSCAPES OF SIGNIFICATION IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST

2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 642-661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Liebmann
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
New Mexico ◽  
Landscape Archaeology ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Symbolic Meaning ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
The Past ◽  
Dynamic Studies ◽  
European Colonization

This article builds upon two convergent trends in landscape archaeology: (1) investigations of symbolic meaning and (2) collaboration with descendant and stakeholder communities. The recent merger of these research agendas in the Southwest US provides an innovative approach to addressing meaning in the past. But the interpretations that result can inadvertently propagate notions of static and unchanging indigenous landscapes. Archaeologists can develop more dynamic studies of meaning and landscape by paying greater attention to the indexical properties of the archaeological record. To illustrate this point, I present a case study focused on ancestral Jemez (Pueblo) meanings associated with the Valles Caldera in northern New Mexico between AD 1300 and 1700. By combining contemporary Jemez understandings of this landscape with the indexical properties of obsidian revealed through pXRF analysis, this study illustrates how the uses of this landscape changed through time, particularly as a result of European colonization in the seventeenth century. It concludes that increased attention to the indexical properties of the archaeological record is critical for archaeological studies of meaning to reconstruct more robust and dynamic past landscapes.

Late Archaic Totemism in the Greater American Southwest

2004 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy J. Coulam ◽  
Alan R. Schroedl
Keyword(s):  
Grand Canyon ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Late Archaic ◽  
Green River

Split-twig figurines, willow branches bent to resemble miniature animals and dating between 2900 B.C. and 1250 B.C., have been found at 30 Late Archaic period archaeological sites in the Greater American Southwest. Two different and geographically distinct construction styles, Grand Canyon and Green River, have been identified for split-twig figurines. Application of ethnographic analogy to the current split-twig figurine archaeological record supports the postulate that the two different styles of split-twig figurines served two different functions. The Grand Canyon-style figurines generally functioned as increase totems whereas the Green River-style functioned as social totems. This is the first example of increase totemism reported for the region. Ritual and social attitudes toward the animal and totem eventually ended and the last split-twig figurine was discarded around 1250 B.C.

Obscuring Cultural Patterns in the Archaeological Record: A Discussion from Southwestern Archaeology

1987 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 565-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda S. Cordell ◽  
Steadman Upham ◽  
Sharon L. Brock
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Cultural Patterns ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Cultural Behavior ◽  
The Past ◽  
Archaeological Interpretation ◽  
Southwestern Archaeology

Failure to distinguish clearly between human behavior and cultural behavior, as well as inattention to procedures for evaluating inferences about the past, undermine some recent efforts in archaeological interpretation. Examples from the archaeological literature of the American Southwest show how analytical confusion may arise when research strategies obscure cultural variability. We are especially concerned about instances in which archaeologists assume that variability in archaeological assemblages derives primarily or exclusively from variability in human behavior (rather than cultural behavior) or from noncultural processes that are instrumental in forming the archaeological record. Suggestions for modifying research strategies to avoid these problems are offered.

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