PREFACE

areas, and the simultaneous presence of indicators of complexity and very low population densities. Incontrast to intensification, extensification does not appear to co-vary with population density. Instead,Binford argues that extensification is a possible response to any circumstances in which a new nicheappears that could result in a relatively rapid dispersion of peoples into areas that were minimally used orunoccupied by hunter-gatherers (2001:442). For example, Binford contends that the extensificationstrategy employed by the mounted plains bison hunters was made possible by the acquisition of domestichorses, which allowed them to increase their scale of range use and their transportation capability.The increasing abundance of bison on the Southern Plain after about AD 1200 appears to have createdprecisely the kind of new niche that would favor extensification by hunter-gatherer and horticulturalgroups on the plains margins. That opportunity may not have been open to groups in the southeasternNew Mexico whose ranges did not extend onto the plains, however. Further, as Binford’s mountedhunter example suggests, the ability for any group to exploit that new niche would have been limited byfoot travel and transport capability. Even with the use of dogs to enhance transport capacity, the dualdependence on bison hunting and cultivation by Plains Village groups in the Texas Panhandle, wherebison were probably most numerous, strongly suggests that the opportunity for extensification could notbe fully exploited.For groups in the Pecos Valley, the options may have been even more limited. Given Speth’s argumentsthat bison at Henderson were procured largely if not exclusively during the spring and that only highutility elements been transported, it appears that the bison herds were only seasonally within range ofeven long-distance hunting parties. The strategic position of the Pecos Valley settlements for providingbison meat to the Sierra Blanca pueblos may explain why they adopted an extensification strategy but,under these circumstances, it is doubtful that hunter-gatherers or horticulturalists with ranges further upthe Sacramento Slope would have either the opportunity or incentive to alter their subsistence strategytoward an emphasis on bison hunting. Some other explanation is therefore needed to account for thedisappearance of sedentary populations in these areas, and the shifting climatic conditions that enabledbison to expand on the Southern Plains seems a likely contributing factor.High-resolution paleoclimatic data is lacking for southeastern New Mexico, but Stuart and Gauthier(1981:418) argue that the Pueblo III settlement patterns statewide are characterized by a rapid movementto higher elevations between AD 1125/1150 and 1200, and a shift to lower elevation settings at AD 1275–1300, after which nearly all Pueblo occupations are in riverine settings. In general, those shifts appear tobe a response to changing climatic conditions affecting agricultural productivity. Although settlementpatterns in the Sierra Blanca area are consistent with movement to higher elevations by AD 1200 (Kelley1984), the later shift to lowland riverine settings is not evident and may have been precluded by theoccupation of the Pecos River valley by other groups. If climatic conditions for agriculture weredeteriorating, then the renewed emphasis on hunting large game and the increasing trade in bison meatmay have been tactics to offset declining crop yields. Given prior intensification of wild resourceprocurement and higher population densities, the opportunities for further increasing wild resource yieldswere probably limited, however, and the quantities of bison meat obtained through exchange would havebeen restricted by transport costs. Ultimately, the Lincoln phase population may have had no option butto abandon the region and move to an environment more favorable for agriculture, most likely in theChupadero Mesa-Gran Quivira region. Any hunter-gatherer populations in adjacent areas would havebeen less severely affected by changing climatic conditions, and would have benefited from partialabandonment of the region. The semi-sedentary bison hunter in the Pecos River valley would have losttheir strategic position in the exchange system for bison meat as the center of Pueblo population shiftednorthward, however. Consequently, given their marginal access to the bison herds, they may have electedto cut their transportation costs by moving the residential groups nearer to the hunting areas; that is, byadopting a nomadic bison-hunting adaptation.4-42