ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
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- All Subjects: Archaeology
- Creators: Smith, Michael E.
Description
This study analyzed archaeological residential inventories from the center of Sauce and its hinterlands to address the possible appearance of markets and the structure of exchange during the Middle Postclassic period (A.D. 1200-1350) in south-central Veracruz, Mexico. Economic development is rarely the result of a coherent strategy either on the part of managing or consuming elites or on the part of the average consumer. Instead, a combination of strategies and overlapping exchange systems provided the context, rather than any one explanation, for how commercial market exchange develops. Identifying the context is challenging because economies have multiple exchange mechanisms, which require clearly defined expectations that separate spatial and network (distributional) data. This separation is vital because different exchange mechanisms such as centralized redistribution versus central-place marketing produce similar spatial patterns. Recent innovations in identifying exchange mechanisms use network (distributional) instead of spatial expectations. Based on this new body of knowledge, new quantitative methods were developed to distinguish between exchange through social networks versus market exchange for individual items based on comparisons of household inventories, later combining this information with spatial and contextual analyses. First, a Bayesian-inspired Monte Carlo computer simulation was designed to identify exchange mechanisms, using all household items including cooking utensils, serving dishes, chipped stone tools, etc., from 65 residential units from Sauce and its hinterland. Next, the socioeconomic rank of households, GIS spatial analyses, and quality assessments of pottery and other items were used to evaluate social and political aspects of exchange and consumption. The results of this study indicated that most products were unrestricted in access, and spatial analyses showed they were acquired in a market near Sauce. Few restrictions on most of the polychromes, chipped stone, and assorted household items (e.g., spindle whorls) lend strong support to commoner household prominence in developing markets. However, there were exceptions. Dull Buff Polychrome was associated with the Sauce center; analyses showed that its access was restricted through social networks. "Cookie-cutter" style figurines and incense burners also showed restriction. Restricted items found in Sauce and wealthier residences indicate enduring political and social inequalities within market development. For Sauce, a combination of elite and commoner household interests was crucial in supporting the growth of commercial exchange rather than a top-down directive.
ContributorsOssa, Alanna (Author) / Stark, Barbara L. (Thesis advisor) / Cowgill, George L. (Committee member) / Smith, Michael E. (Committee member) / Simon, Arleyn W. (Committee member) / Umberger, Emily (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This archaeological study analyses households at the Postclassic site of Calixtlahuaca (State of Mexico, Mexico), to evaluate the directness and collectiveness of local and imperial Aztec rule based on their effects on the commoner population. Scholars are divided as to whether Aztec rule was generally positive (due to opportunities for economic and cultural interaction) or negative (due to taxation and loss of autonomy). Contexts at Calixtlahuaca date to three periods, the Dongu (AD 1130-1370), Ninupi (1370-1450), and Yata (1450-1530) phases. The first two phases show the pre-Aztec trajectory, which is compared to the final period under Aztec rule to disentangle general trends toward regional integration from Aztec effects. Each phase includes six excavated households.
I assess economic changes on three dimensions: foreign trade, local craft production, and household wealth. Trade is evaluated for obsidian and ceramics (INAA, petrography, type classification) and local crafting is evaluated for ceramic, lithic, textile, and molded ceramic items. Wealth is measured using all excavated artifacts, with the relative values of artifact classes based on Colonial Nahuatl wills. Prior to Aztec rule, trade was increasing and diversifying, but craft production was low. Under Aztec rule, trade reoriented toward the Basin of Mexico, craft production remained low, and household wealth stabilized. Pre-Aztec inter-household variation for all dimensions is low, before increasing during the Yata phase.
Cultural changes are evaluated for ritual activities and foodways. I evaluate the degree of interhousehold variability, the overall similarity to other parts of Central Mexico, the degree of change under Aztec rule, and immigration versus emulation as potential explanations for that change. Evaluation is based on the distinction between high and low visibility objects and practices. The Dongu and Ninupi phase households at Calixtlahuaca were culturally homogeneous and regionally distinctive. During the Yata phase, the site became moderately more Aztec, but this change was unevenly distributed among households.
Together, the economic and cultural patterns at Calixtlahuaca indicate that the pre-Aztec local organization of power was relatively collective, but that this was partially overlaid by relatively indirect and non-collective Aztec imperial rule, with mildly negative effects.
I assess economic changes on three dimensions: foreign trade, local craft production, and household wealth. Trade is evaluated for obsidian and ceramics (INAA, petrography, type classification) and local crafting is evaluated for ceramic, lithic, textile, and molded ceramic items. Wealth is measured using all excavated artifacts, with the relative values of artifact classes based on Colonial Nahuatl wills. Prior to Aztec rule, trade was increasing and diversifying, but craft production was low. Under Aztec rule, trade reoriented toward the Basin of Mexico, craft production remained low, and household wealth stabilized. Pre-Aztec inter-household variation for all dimensions is low, before increasing during the Yata phase.
Cultural changes are evaluated for ritual activities and foodways. I evaluate the degree of interhousehold variability, the overall similarity to other parts of Central Mexico, the degree of change under Aztec rule, and immigration versus emulation as potential explanations for that change. Evaluation is based on the distinction between high and low visibility objects and practices. The Dongu and Ninupi phase households at Calixtlahuaca were culturally homogeneous and regionally distinctive. During the Yata phase, the site became moderately more Aztec, but this change was unevenly distributed among households.
Together, the economic and cultural patterns at Calixtlahuaca indicate that the pre-Aztec local organization of power was relatively collective, but that this was partially overlaid by relatively indirect and non-collective Aztec imperial rule, with mildly negative effects.
ContributorsHuster, Angela (Author) / Smith, Michael E. (Thesis advisor) / Stark, Barbara (Committee member) / Umberger, Emily (Committee member) / Spielmann, Katherine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
This archaeological study applies a world-systems-based approach in evaluating regional economic interaction among independent polities. It focuses specifically on interaction between local polities and Teotihuacan-affiliated populations in the Western Tuxtlas Region of the Gulf Coast of Veracruz, Mexico during the Early Classic and Middle Classic periods (A.D. 300-650). Changes in regional economics followed the founding of the Teotihuacan-linked center of Matacapan in the Catemaco River Valley. To assess these changes, this research characterizes the consumption of Matacapan-produced imports in two independent neighboring polities to reconstruct regional distribution networks and assess Matacapan’s impact on the region.
The Central Highland capital of Teotihuacan had variable influence throughout Mesoamerica. One pronounced occurrence of this influence has been identified at Matacapan, which displays strong material culture and architectural connections to Teotihuacan. This research therefore employs a modified world-systems framework which removes the assumption of hierarchy and instead focuses on regional interaction within the periphery. It views the establishment of regional distribution networks centered at Matacapan that articulate with the two neighboring polities as a form of incorporation, the process wherein external groups are brought into a system.
To assess incorporation, four potential Matacapan-centered networks are analyzed. These networks consist of the distribution of two ceramic types and obsidian blades produced from two sources. Artifacts from survey, surface collection, and excavation were subjected to ceramic analysis, lithic analysis, petrography, neutron activation analysis, and X-ray fluorescence analysis to identify source, form, and production technology. These data aid in determining network participation in each polity. By assessing importation in these local polities, the form and degree of their incorporation will be identified.
Incorporation of indigenous polities into regional networks was not uniform within the Western Tuxtlas Region. Two Matacapan-centered networks were identified, and they differ in form and extent. One indigenous polity, Teotepec, participated in both networks while the other, Totocapan, participated in one. I argue that Teotepec’s incorporation into a second network was strategic in that it was mutually beneficial to both involved parties. Additionally, indigenous Tuxtlas’ polities were able to negotiate interaction with their Teotihuacan-affiliated neighbor for desired goods without forfeiting political or cultural autonomy.
The Central Highland capital of Teotihuacan had variable influence throughout Mesoamerica. One pronounced occurrence of this influence has been identified at Matacapan, which displays strong material culture and architectural connections to Teotihuacan. This research therefore employs a modified world-systems framework which removes the assumption of hierarchy and instead focuses on regional interaction within the periphery. It views the establishment of regional distribution networks centered at Matacapan that articulate with the two neighboring polities as a form of incorporation, the process wherein external groups are brought into a system.
To assess incorporation, four potential Matacapan-centered networks are analyzed. These networks consist of the distribution of two ceramic types and obsidian blades produced from two sources. Artifacts from survey, surface collection, and excavation were subjected to ceramic analysis, lithic analysis, petrography, neutron activation analysis, and X-ray fluorescence analysis to identify source, form, and production technology. These data aid in determining network participation in each polity. By assessing importation in these local polities, the form and degree of their incorporation will be identified.
Incorporation of indigenous polities into regional networks was not uniform within the Western Tuxtlas Region. Two Matacapan-centered networks were identified, and they differ in form and extent. One indigenous polity, Teotepec, participated in both networks while the other, Totocapan, participated in one. I argue that Teotepec’s incorporation into a second network was strategic in that it was mutually beneficial to both involved parties. Additionally, indigenous Tuxtlas’ polities were able to negotiate interaction with their Teotihuacan-affiliated neighbor for desired goods without forfeiting political or cultural autonomy.
ContributorsWilson, Nathan Daniel (Author) / Smith, Michael E. (Thesis advisor) / Stark, Barbara L. (Thesis advisor) / Arnold III, Philip J (Committee member) / Kintigh, Keith W. (Committee member) / Simon, Arleyn W (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
This project investigates social mobility in premodern states through a contextualized program of isotopic research at the archaeological site of Teotihuacan, Mexico. Due to the lack of a concrete methodology that can be used to recover information concerning rates of social mobility from archaeological remains, many traditional archaeological models either ignore social mobility or assume that boundaries between socioeconomic strata within archaic states were largely impermeable. In this research, I develop a new methodological approach to the identification of socially mobile individuals in the archaeological record based on changes in the diet across the lifecourse that can be detected through isotopic paleodietary indicators. Drawing upon cross-cultural research surrounding the relationship between diet and socioeconomic status and established methodologies in the biogeochemical analysis of human remains, this methodological approach provides a basis for broader comparative studies evaluating the nature of social mobility within archaic states.
I then test the practical application of this methodology by applying it to a mortuary sample including individuals from distinctive socioeconomic groups from the pre-Hispanic city of Teotihuacan, Mexico. The study recovers and uses the dietary isotope ratios within bone and tooth samples from 81 individuals buried throughout the city 1) to define the dietary correlates of wealth and status at Teotihuacan and 2) to identify individuals displaying lifetime dietary changes consistent with changes in socioeconomic status. In addition to supplementing our current understanding of Teotihuacan foodways and processes of geographic migration into the city, I identify an adult male individual from the La Ventilla B apartment compound who displays dietary changes throughout his life that are consistent with downward socioeconomic mobility from a high status socioeconomic group in early adolescence to an intermediate status group later in adulthood. I conclude by identifying ways to move forward with the comparative archaeology of socioeconomic mobility in premodern contexts and highlight the applicability of archaeological information to our understanding of present-day processes of social mobility.
I then test the practical application of this methodology by applying it to a mortuary sample including individuals from distinctive socioeconomic groups from the pre-Hispanic city of Teotihuacan, Mexico. The study recovers and uses the dietary isotope ratios within bone and tooth samples from 81 individuals buried throughout the city 1) to define the dietary correlates of wealth and status at Teotihuacan and 2) to identify individuals displaying lifetime dietary changes consistent with changes in socioeconomic status. In addition to supplementing our current understanding of Teotihuacan foodways and processes of geographic migration into the city, I identify an adult male individual from the La Ventilla B apartment compound who displays dietary changes throughout his life that are consistent with downward socioeconomic mobility from a high status socioeconomic group in early adolescence to an intermediate status group later in adulthood. I conclude by identifying ways to move forward with the comparative archaeology of socioeconomic mobility in premodern contexts and highlight the applicability of archaeological information to our understanding of present-day processes of social mobility.
ContributorsNado, Kristin Lynn (Author) / Buikstra, Jane E. (Thesis advisor) / Knudson, Kelly J. (Committee member) / Smith, Michael E. (Committee member) / Robertson, Ian G (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
The Egyptian New Kingdom city of Akhetaten (modern: Tell el-Amarna, el-Amarna, or simply Amarna) provides a unique opportunity to study ancient biocultural dynamics. It was a disembedded capital removed from the major power bases of Memphis and Thebes that was built, occupied, and abandoned within approximately 20 years (c. 1352–1336 BCE). This dissertation used the recently excavated Amarna South Tombs cemetery to test competing models for the development of disembedded capitals, such as the geographic origin of its migrants and its demographic structure in comparison to contrastive models for the establishment of settlements. The degree to which biological relatedness organized the South Tombs cemetery was also explored. The results suggest that the Nile Valley into the New Kingdom (1539–1186 BCE) was very diverse in dental cervical phenotype and thus highly mobile in respects to gene flow, failing to reject that the Amarna city was populated by individuals and families throughout the Nile Valley. In comparison, the Amarna South Tombs cemetery contained the least amount of dental phenotypic diversity, supporting a founder effect due to migration from larger, more diverse gene pools to the city or the very fact that the city and sample only reflect a 20-year interval with little time to accumulate phenotypic variation. Parts of the South Tombs cemetery also appear to be organized by biological affinity, showing consistent and significant spatial autocorrelation with biological distances generated from dental cervical measurements in male, female, and subadult (10–19 years of age) burials closest to the South Tombs. This arrangement mimics the same orderliness in the residential areas of the Amarna city itself with officials surrounded by families that supported their administration. Throughout the cemetery, adult female grave shaft distances predict their biological distances, signaling a nuclear family dynamic that included many females including mothers, widows, and unwed aunts, nieces, and daughters. A sophisticated paleodemographic model using simulated annealing optimization projected the living population of the South Tombs cemetery, which overall conformed to a transplanted community similar to 19th century mill villages of the United States and United Kingdom.
ContributorsSchaffer, William Charles (Author) / Buikstra, Jane E. (Thesis advisor) / Stojanowski, Christopher M. (Committee member) / Smith, Michael E. (Committee member) / Rose, Jerome C. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
People come together and form communities in cities across the world but the processes behind community formation are not well understood. Some researchers theorize that having populations with similar characteristics is important; others argue that the existence of public spaces for interaction is key. I use archaeological data collected over six seasons of field work and archival data from The Granada Relocation Center (Amache) National Historic Landmark, a World War II (WWII) Japanese American incarceration center in Southeastern Colorado, to demonstrate the role that participation in previous social communities has on the formation of new social networks. The concept of social cohesion acts as a framework for understanding how access to public spaces and participation in different types of social activities creates a sense of neighborhood community among a dislocated population.
During WWII Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes on the West Coast to ten incarceration centers, disrupting existing communities and forcing the formation of new ones. Amache is one of ten incarceration centers which housed families and individuals. The site resembled an urban center with public facilities and residential areas that functioned as neighborhoods. Archival and archaeological data indicate that residents developed socially defined neighborhoods. Internees modified each neighborhood through the creation of landscape features and development of social activity which provided a venue for residents to interact and form a sense of community identity.
Neighborhood residents clustered based on their affiliation to previous communities both in California and in the temporary detention centers. Clustering in demographically similar neighborhoods facilitated the development of new social interactions and led to the proliferation of landscape features and social events seen in the archaeological and archival record. I identify patterns of neighborhood interaction through an examination of the archaeological record and social network analysis using archival newspapers. Applying archaeological data in partnership with social network data illustrates the range of strategies used by incarcerees to create new communities and problematizes working with a single data source when attempting to identify socially defined neighborhoods.
During WWII Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes on the West Coast to ten incarceration centers, disrupting existing communities and forcing the formation of new ones. Amache is one of ten incarceration centers which housed families and individuals. The site resembled an urban center with public facilities and residential areas that functioned as neighborhoods. Archival and archaeological data indicate that residents developed socially defined neighborhoods. Internees modified each neighborhood through the creation of landscape features and development of social activity which provided a venue for residents to interact and form a sense of community identity.
Neighborhood residents clustered based on their affiliation to previous communities both in California and in the temporary detention centers. Clustering in demographically similar neighborhoods facilitated the development of new social interactions and led to the proliferation of landscape features and social events seen in the archaeological and archival record. I identify patterns of neighborhood interaction through an examination of the archaeological record and social network analysis using archival newspapers. Applying archaeological data in partnership with social network data illustrates the range of strategies used by incarcerees to create new communities and problematizes working with a single data source when attempting to identify socially defined neighborhoods.
ContributorsKamp-Whittaker, April Elizabeth (Author) / Smith, Michael E. (Thesis advisor) / BurnSilver, Shauna (Committee member) / Clark, Bonnie J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
This dissertation research examines neighborhood socio-spatial organization at Calixtlahuaca, a Postclassic (1100-1520 AD) urban center in highland Mesoamerica. Neighborhoods are small spatial units where residents interact at a face to face level in the process of daily activities. How were Calixtlahuaca's neighborhoods organized socio-spatially? Were they homogenous or did each neighborhood contain a mixture of different social and economic groups? Calixtlahuaca was a large Aztec-period city-state located in the frontier region between the Tarascan and Triple Alliance empires. As the capital of the Maltazinco polity, administrative, ritual, and economic activities were located here. Four languages, Matlazinca, Mazahua, Otomi, and Nahua, were spoken by the city's inhabitants. The combination of political geography and an unusual urban center provides an opportunity for examining complex neighborhood socio-spatial organization in a Mesoamerican setting. The evidence presented in this dissertation shows that Calixtlahuaca's neighborhoods were socially heterogeneous spaces were residents from multiple social groups and classes coexisted. This further suggests that the cross-cutting ties between neighborhood residents had more impact on influencing certain economic choices than close proximity in residential location. Market areas were the one way that the city was clearly divided spatially into two regions but consumer preferences within the confines of economic resources were similar in both regions. This research employs artifact collections recovered during the Calixtlahuaca Archaeological Project surface survey. The consumption practices of the residents of Calixtlahuaca are used to define membership into several social groups in order to determine the socio-spatial pattern of the city. Economic aspects of city life are examined through the identification of separate market areas that relate to neighborhood patterns. Excavation data was also examined as an alternate line of evidence for each case. The project contributes to the sparse literature on preindustrial urban neighborhoods. Research into social segregation or social clustering in modern cities is plentiful, but few studies examine the patterns of social clustering in the past. Most research in Mesoamerica focuses on the clustering of social class.
ContributorsNovic, Juliana (Author) / Smith, Michael E. (Thesis advisor) / Stark, Barbara L. (Committee member) / Hegmon, Michelle (Committee member) / Harlan, Sharon (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
I propose a new approach for the analysis of social transformations within the context of colonialism. Drawing on concepts used by historical sociologists, combined with insights from historians and archaeologists, I forge a synthesis of relational mechanisms that concatenated into processes of categorical change. Within the social sciences, mechanisms are formally defined as specific classes of events or social interactions that are causally linked and tend to repeat under specific conditions, potentially resulting in widespread social transformations. Examples of mechanisms include formal inscription through spatial segregation and adjustments in individual position through socioeconomic mobility.
For New Spain, historians have identified at least three macroscale shifts in the social structure of the viceroyalty. I examine the mechanisms that led to these changes in two distinct contexts. The Port of Veracruz (Mexico), located along the main axis of colonial exchange, offers a shifting baseline for comparison of the long-term trajectory of colonial interaction and categorical change. I undertake a finer grain study at the borderland presidios of Northwest Florida, where three presidios were sequentially occupied (AD 1698-1763) and historically linked to Veracruz through formal recruitment and governmental supply.
My analysis draws on two independent lines of evidence. Historically, I examine census records, maps, and other colonial documents. Archaeologically, I assess change in interaction mainly through technological style analysis, compositional characterization, and the distribution of low visibility plain and lead-glazed utilitarian wares. I document the active expression of social categories through changing consumption of highly visible serving vessels.
This study demonstrates that colonial transformations were driven locally from the bottom up and through the top-down responses of local and imperial elites who attempted to maintain control over labor and resources. Social changes in Florida and Veracruz were distinct based upon initial conditions and historical contingencies, yet simultaneously were influenced by and contributed to broad trajectories of macroscale colonial transformations.
For New Spain, historians have identified at least three macroscale shifts in the social structure of the viceroyalty. I examine the mechanisms that led to these changes in two distinct contexts. The Port of Veracruz (Mexico), located along the main axis of colonial exchange, offers a shifting baseline for comparison of the long-term trajectory of colonial interaction and categorical change. I undertake a finer grain study at the borderland presidios of Northwest Florida, where three presidios were sequentially occupied (AD 1698-1763) and historically linked to Veracruz through formal recruitment and governmental supply.
My analysis draws on two independent lines of evidence. Historically, I examine census records, maps, and other colonial documents. Archaeologically, I assess change in interaction mainly through technological style analysis, compositional characterization, and the distribution of low visibility plain and lead-glazed utilitarian wares. I document the active expression of social categories through changing consumption of highly visible serving vessels.
This study demonstrates that colonial transformations were driven locally from the bottom up and through the top-down responses of local and imperial elites who attempted to maintain control over labor and resources. Social changes in Florida and Veracruz were distinct based upon initial conditions and historical contingencies, yet simultaneously were influenced by and contributed to broad trajectories of macroscale colonial transformations.
ContributorsEschbach, Krista (Author) / Stark, Barbara L. (Thesis advisor) / Smith, Michael E. (Thesis advisor) / Alexander, Rani T (Committee member) / Worth, John E. (Committee member) / Bearat, Hamdallah (Committee member) / Peeples, Matthew A. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
This research combines traditional archaeological analysis with lidar data to investigate infrastructure, residential architecture, and neighborhoods in a completely new way. Taken together, these analyses show the shape and form of this city during its apogee in CE 650, while providing a deeper understanding of its civic administration through the use of multiple urban levels (citywide, district, neighborhood, and residential/plazuela). Independently, any one of these results may provide an incomplete picture or inaccurate conclusion, but, when conjoined, the analyses interdigitate to shed light on the city as a whole. This research showcases the physical infrastructural power of this city through the widespread distribution of its urban services among the city’s districts while still highlighting tiers of urban services among districts. It reinforces the idea of household architectural autonomy through the lack of standardization in the built environment, while also highlighting the relative equality of residences. And, it emphasizes both citywide and neighborhood-based similarities in categorical identities that would have facilitated collective action among individuals in the past by reducing the friction to initiate collective endeavors. Taken together, these results suggest both autocratic and collective governance, and views from different urban levels when combined provide a more detailed perspective on the multiple interacting and concurrent processes that determined urban life and structure in the past. These analyses also hold the potential to shed light on other governance practices in future comparative urban research on archaeological, historical, and modern cities. However, the initial findings reported in this dissertation suggest that Caracol enjoyed a more collective system of governance processes despite the hieroglyphic record of a lineage of rulers.
ContributorsChase, Adrian Sylvanus Zaino (Author) / Smith, Michael E. (Thesis advisor) / Nelson, Ben A. (Committee member) / York, Abigail M. (Committee member) / Peeples, Matthew A. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
This study examines almost 5000 lithic artifacts from three rockshelters in the Belize, part of the Maya Lowlands. These sites bear evidence of human occupation throughout the last 14,000 years, a period over which I assess change in four lithic traits: 1) cortex, or the weathered outer surface of a toolstone cobble; 2) platform type, or the degree of preparation of striking platforms; 3) bifaciality, or whether tools were flaked on one or both faces; and 4) retouch, or the removal of small flakes from tool edges. These traits are differentially associated with two modes of technological organization: curation and expedience. Curation involves greater effort spent creating tools with longer use-lives and is associated with low levels of cortex, more complex platforms, more bifacial flaking, and higher amounts of retouch. It is also more typical of highly mobile hunter-gatherers who move their residential base often. Expedience, which entails less effort creating lithics with shorter use-lives, is associated with higher amounts of cortex, simpler platforms, less bifacial flaking, and lower levels of retouch; it is also associated with more sedentary hunter-gatherers. My results indicate that, during the Late Pleistocene in Belize, groups favored curation and were likely highly mobile foragers inhabiting an open grassland landscape. However, not long after the Pleistocene-ending Younger Dryas climatic event (~12,600 to 11,700 cal BP), these groups began to favor expedience, indicating they’d begun to adopt a more sedentary lifestyle. This shift towards expedience and sedentism continued throughout the Early and Middle Holocene, when closed-canopy tropical forests came to dominate the landscape. I conclude that these foragers began to adopt lower levels of residential mobility much earlier than generally thought. Because the sparse, unpredictable nature of wild tropical forest flora and fauna favors high residential mobility, this means they were likely manipulating their landscapes and experimenting with cultivars several millennia before the first appearance of sedentary farming villages. This further implies that the origins of sedentism and agriculture in tropical forests must be sought in the changing lifeways of pre-agricultural, semi-sedentary forager-horticulturalists of the deep past.
ContributorsDennehy, Timothy J. (Author) / Smith, Michael E. (Thesis advisor) / Barton, C. M. (Committee member) / Marean, Curtis W. (Committee member) / Prufer, Keith M. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021