PREFACE

CHAPTER 4PROBLEM DOMAINS FOR SOUTHEASTERN NEW MEXICOPatrick HoganThe primary objectives of this chapter are 1) to identify and prioritize research questions related to theprehistoric and protohistoric occupations in southeastern New Mexico; 2) to identify the kinds of dataneeded to address those questions; 3) to develop an integrated research strategy for interpreting thosedata; and 4) to introduce explanatory concepts that can be used to develop subsistence-settlement modelsand that provide a framework for understanding cultural developments in the region.Relatively few excavation projects have been completed in southeastern New Mexico, and many sites thathave been excavated have yielded minimal information. Consequently, adequate data concerningchronology, subsistence practices, and settlement patterns are lacking for all of the major culturaltemporalperiods (Paleoindian, Archaic, Formative/Ceramic, and Protohistoric). This research design istherefore structured around general problem domains that address basic questions relating to the nature ofthe cultural adaptations and changes in those adaptations through time.CHRONOLOGY AND CULTURE HISTORYThe overall objective of research under this problem domain is to determine the temporal ordering ofarchaeological sites in the region. The basic questions that must be answered for each temporal period inorder to achieve this objective vary depending on the level of inquiry.At the site/component level, the question is simply:• when was the site occupied?At the intermediate, area/generalization level, the question is:• which sites are contemporary?Theoretically, these questions could be answered with an adequate suite of absolute dates. In practice,however, many of the sites are unlikely to yield datable materials, and only a small proportion of the sitesare likely to be excavated. Given this situation, relative dating will be the primary basis for determiningthe age and contemporaneity of most sites in the region. Consequently, refinement of the relativechronology is a research priority for all cultural-temporal periods.At the regional/interpretive level, the questions become:• when do observable changes in the cultural adaptations occur? and,• are those changes associated with environmental change, demographic pressure, and/orinternal or external cultural developments?There are also some cultural-historical questions specific to each cultural-temporal period, most of whichare only addressable at the regional/interpretive level. Those questions are discussed later in this chapter.A number of relative and absolute dating methods are available to address these questions. For survey,relative dating based on temporally-diagnostic projectile points and ceramics is, and will probably remain,the primary dating method. The current limitations of this method are well known. First, detailedmorphological descriptions of the temporal diagnostics are often lacking, particularly for projectile points,and similar point styles have different date ranges in different regional chronologies. Second, the ceramic4-1