Population Growth, Agricultural Intensification, and Culture Change among the Virgin Branch Anasazi, Nevada
1996; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 23; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1179/009346996791973972
ISSN2042-4582
Autores Tópico(s)Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
ResumoVirgin Branch Anasazi settlement pattern data are examined to determine the extent to which agricultural practices may have been intensified along the Muddy and Virgin rivers of southern Nevada between A.C. 100 and 1150. It is argued that as population levels increase among arid-land hunters and gatherers there is an inevitable decline in the ratio between the quantities of wild resources and a region's human population. In response to such imbalances a progressive shift towards a greater reliance upon domesticated crops, storage, and trade occurs, promoting yet further demographic increases and still greater demands for food production.Analyses of Periods III, IV and V settlement data derived from new, intensive archaeological surveys for this regionof the Great Basin support the notion that in response to population growth the Virgin Branch Anasazi did intensify agricultural productivity and did so by means of check-dams and canal-ditch irrigation. Change reflected in agricultural practices and technologies, storage, and social organization are consistent with those predicted. Increases in population size and densities, coupled with a greater dependency upon an agricultural economy within a high-risk agricultural environment, were the primary factors promoting cultural evolution in this agriculturally marginal setting.
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