PREFACE

In using modern environmental data as a proxy for past environmental conditions, the impact of recenthuman activities also needs to be considered. Dick-Peddie (1993:20), for example, attributes theexpansion of juniper, mesquite, cholla, and creosote-bush into former grasslands to cattle grazing. Themost pervasive effects, however, are probably the result of groundwater pumping. Fielder and Nye(1933) noted a noticeable drop in groundwater levels and artesian pressure beginning in about 1905, andit may be possible to model the effects of higher groundwater tables on springs and seeps. As Wisemanand Speth have demonstrated, historical records are also useful in assessing the environmental changesresulting from Euro-American settlement of the region.RESEARCH PRIORITIESIn the scope of work for this project, the BLM stipulated that the research design should identify specificresearch questions that can be successfully addressed by through study of archaeological sites insoutheastern New Mexico, and particularly research issues that are better addressed in this region than inother parts of New Mexico. It is clear from previous overviews of the region (Katz and Katz 2001;Sebastian and Larralde 1989; Stuart and Gauthier 1981) that the study of Paleoindian occupation is onearea where research in southeastern New Mexico has made and should continue to make a significantcontribution. It is also clear that the Archaic and Ceramic period occupations in southeastern NewMexico differ from contemporary occupations in adjacent areas of the Southwest. The primaryexplanation offered for those differences has been that cultural developments in southeastern NewMexico are peripheral or marginal expressions of developments in the greater Southwest culture area, andthis perception of marginality has had a stultifying effect on research.It seems to me that southeastern New Mexico is more properly conceptualized as an ecological andcultural frontier – a region of transition – between the Basin and Range and Plains physiographicprovinces, and between the Southwest and Plains culture areas. The duality of this definition emphasizesthe point that any frontier situation includes many dimensions (Parker and Rodseth (2005), which isconsistent with Katz and Katzs’ (2001) characterization of southeastern New Mexico as an intersection ofseveral physiographic and culture areas. Culturally, frontiers can be conceived as an area of overlappingbut not congruent political, economic, linguistic, and ethnic boundaries that serves as a zone of contactbetween different population, and which may give rise to hybridized cultural forms. Building on Wolf’s(1982:387) definition of culture, Parker and Rodseth (2005:4) argue that frontiers are best viewed as aseries of processes [largely distinct from those operating in core areas] that “construct, reconstruct, anddismantle material culture in response to identifiable determinants.” They stress that historical processesof this kind can be understood only through analysis of the empirical evidence from many intensivelystudied cases (Parker and Rodseth 2005:4). Viewed in this context, the archaeological record insoutheastern New Mexico provides a rare opportunity to investigate the historical processes operating onfrontiers over a time period measured in millennia.Given our rudimentary understanding of the prehistoric and protohistoric occupations in southeasternNew Mexico, the research design has been structured to provide the basic data on chronology,subsistence, and settlement that are a necessary precursor to an analysis of the cultural dynamicsoperating on the frontier. This research emphasizes two aspects common to most frontier studies –physical geography and demography. Parker and Rodseth (2005:13) suggest that topography, climate,vegetation, and the availability of water and other strategic resources condition the various social andcultural boundaries within a frontier to a greater or lesser degree. Demography also plays a critical role asfrontiers tend to be defined either as a transitional area of low population density between two moredensely populated regions, or as an uninhabited or sparsely populated area at the edges of a populationcenter. In either case, population shifts on various scales within or through the frontier are an importantcomponent of the overall cultural dynamic.4-56