Kin Groups and Social Power at the Harris Site, Southwestern New Mexico

The Late Pithouse period in the Mimbres Mogollon region of southwestern New Mexico was a dynamic time during which many social changes occurred. One of the more significant of these changes appears to be related to the role of land-holding kin groups at some of the larger pithouse sites. We present bioarchaeological data from our recent excavations at the Harris Site in the Mimbres River Valley to illustrate that certain kin groups were gaining social power compared to others in the village. We discuss the reasons for these power differentials and the implications that they have for understanding the myriad other social changes occurring valley-wide at the end of the Pithouse period.

The Intensity of Maize Processing and Production in Upland Mogollon Pithouse Villages A.D. 200–1000

Analyses of the size, shape, and wear on western Mogollon manos and metates reveal that the dietary importance of maize remained low and stable from the Early Pithouse period (A.D. 200–550) through the Georgetown phase (A.D. 550–700). The consumption of maize increased during the San Francisco phase (A.D. 700–825/850) and continued to increase through the Three Circle phase (A.D. 825/850–1000). Changes in the ubiquity of charred pieces of maize (Zea mays) from paleoethnobotanical samples also indicate an increase in maize consumption from the Early Pithouse period through the Three Circle phase. The onset of increased maize consumption roughly coincided with the introduction of an improved variety of eight-row maize, around A.D. 650–700 (Upham et al. 1987). The analyses presented in this study do not agree with recent suggestions (Gilman 1987; Mauldin 1991) that maize consumption in the western Mogollon region remained stable and low until the Classic Mimbres phase (A.D. 1000–1150).

Moving out of the Archaic on the Edge of the Southwest

The transition from mobile foragers to sedentary farmers was not made to the same degree all over the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The deserts of the Jornada Mogollon region illustrate the persistence of some aspects of mobile adaptations through the first millennium A.D., as both Jornada Archaic peoples and their ceramic-using successors made use of a seasonal mobility pattern to cope with the region's arid conditions. Use of winter base camps and mobility during the rest of the year are apparent in both cases, but important differences can also be detected. This study combines old and new data to show how the two adaptations differed in the extent to which winter camps were used, in type and intensity of winter provisioning strategies, and in patterns of community organization. All these changes are argued to be logical precursors to the short-lived agricultural adaptation that appeared in the area after A.D. 1100. Moreover, such adaptations may characterize a large portion of the desert Southwest and northern Mexico.