Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation
5-2015
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Department
Anthropology
Degree Program
Anthropology, MA
Committee Chair
Haws, Jonathan A.
Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)
DiBlasi, Phil
Committee Member
Hanchette, Carol
Subject
Indians of North America--Southwest, New--Antiquities; Excavations (Archaeology)--Southwest, New; Human ecology--Southwest, New--History; Southwest, New--Antiquities
Abstract
Excavations at Ghost Ranch of two hunter-gatherer rock shelters, GR-2 and GR-145, offer new opportunities for assessing prehistoric land-use in the Piedra Lumbre Basin of northcentral New Mexico. Intersite analysis of these remains provides new data for understanding subsistence organization during the Southwestern Archaic and Formative periods. Faunal and floral assemblages from the two sites, located five km apart and overlapping chronologically, suggest divergent patterns of resource collection, processing, and use by groups taking up temporary residence in a seasonal round. I argue that economic agency provides the best explanation for the sites’ differentiated remains. Furthermore, I propose that, based on this and related evidence, the divisions of labor characteristic of agricultural societies might have their origin in specialized behaviors practiced in discrete locations by prehistoric foraging peoples.
Recommended Citation
Hoefer, David Alan 1959-, "Provisions of labor : prehistoric evidence for economic behavior at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico." (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2143.
https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/2143
