The Toyah complex of south and central Texas

Long-range mobility and the emergence of dual economies

Bibliographic Data

ID9218003
AuthorsStephen M Carpenter (0000-0002-0723-7073, SWCA Environmental Consultants, Austin, TX, USA, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume62
Issue242
Pages133-156
Publication date2017-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePlains Anthropologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-0447 • E-ISSN: 2052-546X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00320447.2016.1258858
OpenAlexW2581483470
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited50

The Late Prehistoric Toyah complex of south and central Texas has fostered a long-running debate on the origins, identity, and economic basis of the society that employed the distinctive toolkit. Over the last two decades, researchers have taken the general position of Toyah as generalized foragers operating within fixed territories and interacting with adjacent groups such as the Caddo, Jumano, and maritime-adapted Rockport groups, all of whom shared components of the same toolkit. However, coinciding with Toyah times many areas around the Great Plains show the rise of a widespread adaptation of semi-sedentary bison-hunting farmers, often sharing common elements of the Toyah toolkits, using seasonal long-range mobility. These groups operated dual economies within formalized socio-economic networks. The two theoretical positions offer highly contrastive archeological expectations. This paper presents multiple lines of evidence in support of the long-range mobility model as the better explanation for the hallmarks of the Toyah complex

Adaptation (eye · Archaeology · Dual (grammatical number · Economic geography · Economics · Economy · Ethnology · Geography · Identity (music · Position (finance · Prehistory · Range (aeronautics · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Natural History · Engineering · History · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology