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Los Primeros Mexicanos: Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene People of Sonora

2017; Duke University Press; Volume: 97; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1215/00182168-3824128

1527-1900

Emiliano Gallaga,

Archaeology and Natural History

Where do we come from? How did we get here? These are all normal questions for those of us who would like to know how humans first arrived to the American continent. Although the idea that human groups entered the continent via the Bering Strait is now generally accepted, the details of how, when, and where are still debated among scholars. Los Primeros Mexicanos, by Guadalupe Sánchez, provides fresh insight into these questions and details how humans arrived to these lands so many years ago, focusing on the area that is today Mexico and especially on recent research from Sonora. This region has been neglected for many years by Mexican archaeologists but in recent decades has gained importance and recognition. The book contributes to understanding a region that is typically divided into two areas: the US Southwest and northwestern Mexico.In chapter 1, the author briefly describes the status of the debate on the peopling of the Americas as well as discussions surrounding the Clovis complex. Here, the author suggests that because of the early date of 11,560 BP obtained at the Fin del Mundo site in Sonora and the observation that more than 114 Clovis points have been found in this state, this area could be the origin of the Clovis complex (p. 3). The second chapter is a nice and critical review of most of the Paleoindian sites in Mexico and the current status of their validity. It provides an overview of Paleoindian points reported in Mexico (focusing on three types: Clovis, Folsom, and Plainview) as well, numbers not very impressive compared to those for the United States (p. 19). In chapter 3, the author describes the geography and the landscape in order to provide a baseline of knowledge on what type of environment the Paleoindian people encountered in the Sonora region in general and at the Fin del Mundo site in particular. It surely was a very different place from what we encounter today. Also, the author provides a brief but good summary of the history of Paleoindian and Archaic research in Sonora.Chapter 4 is dedicated exclusively to presenting research on the Late Paleoindian occupation in Sonora and gives a very detailed description of ten sites corresponding to this period of time, including the Fin del Mundo site. Of especial interest is the description of the El Bajío site, where more than 20 loci were identified and excavated including a vitrified basalt raw material quarry, making this one of the more complex Clovis sites in the region. The diversity of the lithic material found at the site and the description and reconstruction of a Clovis lithic technology constitute the core of chapter 5, in which the author also concludes that the high-quality basalt quarry of Cerro de la Vuelta at the El Bajío site is the “only known large quarry of fine materials in Sonora” and “one of the most important Clovis assemblages in western North America” (p. 123). Probably its most important aspect is that it is one of the few Clovis sites on the continent that seems to have had a long-term occupation. In the conclusion (chapter 6), the author summarizes her arguments about the importance of Sonora for understanding the Clovis migration and emphasizes the hypothesis that this region could be the origin of Clovis material culture. Two important aspects stand out in this chapter. First, although the author mentions that no biological evidence has been found at these Sonoran Clovis sites, their Paleoindian residents must have relied on other nonmeat hunting resources (p. 126). The Paleoindian landscape reconstruction shows that the area indeed had plenty of other natural resources, and this was probably one main reason for these communities staying here for such a long time. And second, the apparently long-term occupation of the sites and area lends support to the “staging-area” model (p. 125).This text demonstrates the tremendous growth in knowledge about this region's past noted in 1997 by archaeologists Jefferson Reid and Stephanie Whittlesey. Recent research on Paleoindian points in the US Southeast suggests that the Southwest might seem to have more points only because of a larger sample size and research. Sánchez reports that 39 Paleoindian points have been found in Chihuahua, but just from the time that the site covered in Los Primeros Mexicanos came to light to today 26 more Paleoindian points have been recorded (Midland no. 15, Milnesand no. 3, and Plainview no. 8 in Chihuahua), and all only from the site of Rancho Santa María II in Galeana. Does this new data change the validity of the author's statement about the origin of the Clovis culture? Probably not. It likely only illustrates that more research is needed, mostly in northwestern Mexico, in order to get a clearer idea of how the first Americans became what they became in this (for them) new land.