The Processes of Farming Diffusion in the Southwest and Great Basin

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2565331
AutoresJoseph C Winter (autor de correspondencia)
Año1976
Volumen41
Número4
Páginas421-429
Fecha de publicación1976-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAmerican Antiquity (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-7316 • E-ISSN: 2325-5064
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/279009
OpenAlexW2330025563
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7
Referencias citadas17

Dietary, paleoclimatic, and ethnohistoric evidence indicates that alterations in regional systems of exploitation and selective pressures were associated with the diffusion of farming in unrelated periods of Southwestern and Great Basin cultural development. Artifacts and coprolite/macrofloral remains from the Clydes Cavern and Hogup Cave Fremont sites suggest that the spread of maize farming coincided with: (a) the development of grass collecting; (bj the expansion of a grassland environment; (c) outside cultural contacts; and (dj genetic modifications in corn. Ethnohistoric evidence indicates that the diffusion ofNuma horticulture in the early historic period also occurred in a context of environmental change. However, unlike the Fremont example in which natural environmental modifications were present, the spread of Numa farming occurred as a result of disruptions to the native plant communities and the seed gathering cycle caused by external cultural pressures. Both examples demonstrate that while the specific reasons for the adoption and growth of farming differed depending upon the regional situation, the overall pattern of horticultural diffusion in the Southwest and Great Basin may have been favored by selective pressures involving environmental alteration, population expansion and contact influences

Agriculture · Archaeology · Biology · Context (archaeology) · Geography · Grassland · Natural (archaeology) · Period (music) · Population · Structural basin · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Demography · Ecology · Geology · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology