Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Rock Or Relic? Lithic Technology And Social Life In The Mimbres Mogollon Region Of Southwestern New Mexico, Jeffrey Dylan Clark Person

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research project investigates stone tool technology at pithouse and pueblo sites in the Mimbres Mogollon region of southwestern New Mexico. Starting around AD 550, people in this area were shifting from mobile foragers who moved in seasonal rounds to sedentary village farmers. This process of subsistence change sparked further changes in material culture and social organization across the Mimbres region. The dissertation focuses on lithic debitage, the stone flakes and rock shatter that resulted from reducing stone cores into usable cutting and scraping tools. Debitage from three Mimbres sites, the Harris site, La Gila Encantada, and Elk Ridge were …

The Proof Is In The Pots: Residue Analysis Of Virgin Branch Puebloan Ceramics, Brenna Lynn Wilkerson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study focuses on better understanding diet and subsistence strategies among Virgin Branch Puebloan groups living in the Moapa Valley in southern Nevada and on the Shivwits Plateau in northwestern Arizona. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to identify absorbed food residues in three types of Virgin Branch Puebloan ceramics (Moapa Gray Ware, Shivwits Ware, and Tusayan Virgin Series). The data produced by the residue analysis were used to compare patterns of subsistence between Virgin Branch Puebloan sites in the lowlands along the Muddy River and at upland sites on the Shivwits Plateau as these two areas have different environments …

The Bioarchaeology Of Social Order: Cooperation And Conflict Among The Mimbres (Ad 550-1300), Kathryn Mary Baustian

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Interpersonal conflict, social control, and culturally sanctioned violence are all potential modes of effecting change amongst most human groups. This research investigates the complex relationship between interpersonal violence, human skeletal biology, and social identity among prehistoric agricultural communities in the American Southwest. Using bioarchaeology as a research framework, the data presented in this study reveal patterns that can be used to better understand how violence is utilized or avoided in any time period. Bioarchaeology is well suited to investigate violence because it integrates the most direct evidence of conflict (traumatic skeletal injury) with detailed archaeological reconstructions of past human experiences. …

Corrugated Ware Function And Use As Identity Markers At The Harris Site, Danielle Romero

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis examines the function of corrugated vessels and addresses pithouse and group identity through the differences in technological and design style at the Harris site (LA 1867), a Late Pithouse period (550-1000 CE) Mimbres Mogollon pithouse village. Corrugated wares have long been defined as utilitarian cooking vessels. The goal of this research is to shed more light on corrugated wares as a ceramic type that served a variety of functions outside of cooking, including a presence in ritual spheres. This research also explores the use of technological and design styles of corrugated wares to discuss individual and group identity. …

Chronologies Of Pain And Power: Violence, Inequality, And Social Control Among Ancestral Pueblo Populations (Ad 850-1300), Ryan Patrick Harrod

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Analysis of human remains in the Greater Southwest offers important insights into mechanisms underlying cultural processes, human adaptability as well as behavioral flexibility and resilience in the face of change. Data collected from human remains from several sites throughout the Four Corners region of the Greater Southwest provides information on the ways that violence and social inequality were used to maintain a regional complex between AD 850 to AD 1300. Human remains were used to provide empirical data on biological (age, sex, stature, and robusticity) and cultural (mortuary context, burial practice, and site layout) identity. Skeletal remains provided information on …

Puebloan Plain-Weave Pointed/Rounded-Toe Sandals, David Toy Yoder

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An assemblage of 226 Puebloan pointed/rounded-toe sandals from sites throughout the northern Southwest was examined to answer the following questions: how were these sandals constructed, when where they used, and where were they distributed. The answers to these questions were then used to investigate cultural boundaries, communities of practice, and interaction among the Anasazi. Methods of analysis included a technical analysis, soft X-ray radiography, microscopic fiber identification, spatial analysis, AMS radiocarbon dating, and experimental reconstruction.

Based on these analyses it appears that pointed/rounded-toe sandals were used as early as A.D. 631 to as late as A.D. 1178. Spatially, this sandal …

Analysis Of Flaked Stone Lithics From Virgin Anasazi Sites Near Mt. Trumbull, Arizona Strip, Cheryl Marie Martin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis examines flaked stone tools that were used by the Virgin Anasazi and the debitage resulting from their manufacture at six sites in the Mt. Trumbull region in order to infer past human behavior. The behaviors being examined include activities carried out at sites, the processing and use of raw stone materials, and patterns of regional exchange. I have applied obsidian sourcing technology and an analysis of flaked stone attributes. The research indicates a range of activities occurred at habitation sites at Mt. Trumbull, and toolmakers did not need to expend large amounts of time and energy on acquiring …