The Black Mountain phase of the Mimbres Mogollon cultural tradition, dating from around A.D. 1150 through A.D. 1300, is perhaps the most poorly understood time period of the entire Mimbres sequence. During that time, people inhabiting the Mimbres Valley of southwestern New Mexico adopted new ceramic sequences, ceased producing Black-on-white pottery, adopted new architectural styles, and possibly changed mortuary patterns. These changes have been interpreted in a multitude of ways that can be reduced to models of continuity and discontinuity. Unfortunately, these models and interpretations rest on a very limited set of data that comes largely from three moderately tested Black Mountain phase sites in the Mimbres Valley proper: Montoya, Old Town, and Walsh. Thus, arguments for or against either model based on the presence of absence of particular traits are necessarily limited by the modest data from these three sites. It was in this context of opposing interpretations that other aspects of the life ways of Black Mountain phase peoples were analyzed. Specifically, I look at the ways lithic and ceramic technologies were organized to assess if the changes that occurred during the Black Mountain phase also represent changes in the ways social systems were organized. I believe that while certain aspects of material culture such as shifts in ceramic or architectural style are easily changed whereas the social mechanisms responsible for their production are more resistant. The results of these analyses demonstrate that there are more similarities than differences with respect to the manner in which technologies were organized during the time periods traditionally accepted as representing “Mimbres” manifestations and the Black Mountain phase. Thus, the social mechanisms dictating the processes of production, distribution, transmission, and reproduction appear to be similar from the Pithouse periods through the Black Mountain phase. This research adds to the growing body of evidence that suggests continuity between the Classic period inhabitants of the Mimbres area and later Black Mountain phase peoples. / text

The general architectural transition from semi-subterranean pithouses to surface pueblos that occurred across the prehistoric North American Southwest has been attributed to increased agricultural dependence. In this study macrobotanical ubiquity scores, percentages, diversity, and richness were compared between pithouse and pueblo assemblages from the NAN Ranch Ruin, Grant County, New Mexico, to assess whether or not the macrobotanical evidence supported a link between increased agricultural dependence and the pithouse to pueblo transition at the site. Rarely were differences between values of relative macrobotanical abundance from the two periods found to be significant. Ubiquity analyses provided some evidence for greater agricultural dependence in the pueblo period. Ubiquity scores declined between the pithouse and pueblo periods for all taxa recovered from both periods, except maize (Zea mays L.) and goosefoot (Chenopodium spp.), an aggressive agricultural weed, probably because the puebloan occupants of the NAN Ranch Ruin relied more on maize agriculture than did the pithouse occupants at the site. Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) was recovered only from pueblo deposits, perhaps indicating that this crop was not grown during the earlier pithouse period. Significant differences that were detected between pithouse and pueblo values of relative macrobotanical abundance were most likely due to the effect of variable sample sizes, when all samples were combined for analysis, regardless of their recovery contexts. Although the effect of variable sample volume was controlled by analysis of sub-samples representing five liters of excavated soil, the sub-samples varied in the number of specimens present. This finding illustrates the effect of variable numbers of specimens per sample on measures of relative abundance and the importance of comparing similar contexts in quantitative studies.

The general architectural transition from semi-subterranean pithouses to surface pueblos that occurred across the prehistoric North American Southwest has been attributed to increased agricultural dependence. In this study macrobotanical ubiquity scores, percentages, diversity, and richness were compared between pithouse and pueblo assemblages from the NAN Ranch Ruin, Grant County, New Mexico, to assess whether or not the macrobotanical evidence supported a link between increased agricultural dependence and the pithouse to pueblo transition at the site. Rarely were differences between values of relative macrobotanical abundance from the two periods found to be significant. Ubiquity analyses provided some evidence for greater agricultural dependence in the pueblo period. Ubiquity scores declined between the pithouse and pueblo periods for all taxa recovered from both periods, except maize (Zea mays L.) and goosefoot (Chenopodium spp.), an aggressive agricultural weed, probably because the puebloan occupants of the NAN Ranch Ruin relied more on maize agriculture than did the pithouse occupants at the site. Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) was recovered only from pueblo deposits, perhaps indicating that this crop was not grown during the earlier pithouse period. Significant differences that were detected between pithouse and pueblo values of relative macrobotanical abundance were most likely due to the effect of variable sample sizes, when all samples were combined for analysis, regardless of their recovery contexts. Although the effect of variable sample volume was controlled by analysis of sub-samples representing five liters of excavated soil, the sub-samples varied in the number of specimens present. This finding illustrates the effect of variable numbers of specimens per sample on measures of relative abundance and the importance of comparing similar contexts in quantitative studies.

The Harris site (A.D. 500-1000) is an unusual Mimbres site because it has a Late Pithouse period component with no overlying Classic period pueblo. The excavations by the University of Las Vegas-Nevada (UNLV) were conducted at this site between 2007 and 2013. Shell artifacts, and their role in the Mimbres area, have not been extensively studied. I analyzed shell data from the UNLV field school, combined with Haury's excavated shell assemblage from his work at the site in the 1930's to interpret the role of shell at the Harris site. More specifically, I look at the role shell may have played in the ritual life of Mimbres society. Using context, artifact form, and co-occurring assemblage materials illuminates how shell was used in ritual practice. My methodology includes recording specific information about the shell, including, but not limited to: context, condition (i.e., burnt vs. unburnt), description, measurements, artifact form, genus, and species if the shell is identifiable to that degree. Using this methodology allows me to observe patterns and infer whether specific artifact forms and/or genera correlate with certain contexts. Observing these patterns, I seek to observe the ritual practices in which shell was incorporated. I use Bell (1992, 1997) and Bradley’s (2010) framework on ritual, which posits that ritual-like behavior has marked characteristics and occurs in a variety of quotidian and sacred contexts, which suggests a continuum rather than a dichotomy in the use of these spaces. To further understand the use of shell in ritual practices, looking at spatial and diachronic data is imperative. Therefore, five other sites along the Mimbres River have been chosen for comparison. These sites include Pithouse and Classic period components. This comparison allows me to investigate how shell use changed over time in the Mimbres region. The comparative sites include: NAN Ranch (A.D. 600/650-1150), Mattocks Ruin (A.D. 750/800-1130), Galaz Ruin (A.D. 550-1130), Swarts (A.D. 950-1150), and the Old Town site (A.D. 750-1150).

This study uses Transition Analysis on the Mimbres skeletal remains of the NAN Ranch Ruin to provide a more complete picture of its demography. Previous attempts to reconstruct the demographic structure of prehistoric populations have been hindered by aging methods that provide biased age distribution. Early methods had a tendency to produce age distribution similar to that of the reference sample that was used to create them. In addition, they often overlooked sexual dimorphism and left out the senescent portion of the population which in turns produced inaccurate population structures. Transition Analysis is a multifactorial approach to estimate the age-at-death of adult skeletons that focuses on the cranium, the pubic symphysis and the auricular surface of the ilium. The method relies heavily on the Bayesian probability that a given trait or a given combination of traits is displayed at a given age, it recognizes sexual dimorphism, performs well on fragmentary skeletons and allows for the age estimation of older individuals. The NAN Ranch Ruin sample consists of over 240 individuals, including 185 from the Classic Period. A previous study focused on the 81 individuals from the Classic period that were collected during the first five years of excavations. Following age estimation of adult skeleton I constructed composite abridged life tables. For the Classic Period, I found a high infant mortality rate (47%) and low life expectancy at birth (21.14 years) as expected. However, this analysis produced different mortality patterns than older demographic studies, where mid adult mortality increases only slightly, decreases in late adulthood (40-55 years old) and increases again in senescence (55-80 years old), instead of increasing steadily in adulthood to culminate at age 50. This difference is a consequence of the aging methods that have been used to analyze other southwestern prehistoric samples. Finally, while I was not able to confirm different mortality patterns between males and females, I found that people from the east roomblock enjoyed greater longevity than those from the south roomblock, though the difference is not statistically significant.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 307-332).

abstract: This dissertation develops a multidimensional approach to examine the ways in which people in small-scale societies create, perpetuate, justify, and overcome social inequality. Inequality can exist within a number of independent domains, some of which are likely to be subtle and dissimilar from those familiar to Western society. The advantages and disadvantages of inequality can shift between various groups and across social scales. Recent ethnographic work suggest that the most common domain of inequality in small-scale societies may involve status accrued to founding lineages. This hypothesis is examined in relation to four additional domains, each inspired by ethnographic data from indigenous groups of the U.S. Southwest: differential access to productive resources, ritual knowledge and practice, nonlocal objects and styles, and material wealth. Analyses are carried out with data from seven archaeological sites in the Mimbres region of southwestern New Mexico, spanning a period from approximately 250 to 1130 C.E. Results show that inequality was present throughout the Mimbres archaeological sequence but that it shifted over time, across space and social scales, and varied in magnitude in non-directional ways. Results also identify persistent factionalism wherein groups vied for moral authority based on differences in residential antecedence and justified via religious differences. Insight from this research benefits the social sciences by developing a number of methodological approaches, particularly to the archaeological study of primacy and antecedence, by demonstrating the necessity of a nuanced, multi-faceted approach to inequality, and by revealing the complex and plastic nature of inequality. / Dissertation/Thesis / Chapter 3 Appendices (I - II) / Chapter 4 Appendices (III - XIX) / Chapter 5 Appendices (XX - CVIII) / Chapter 6 Appendices (CIX - CXVII) / Chapter 7 Appendices (CXVIII - CCXL) / Doctoral Dissertation Anthropology 2016

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1996. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 294-325).

No description available.