Social Identities Among Archaic Mobil Hunters And Gatherers in the American Southwest

The mobile hunters and gatherers of the Archaic Southwest were members of at least three different kinds of social bands, endogamous marriage groups, and a risk-sharing economic network. By comparing the geographic distributions of conological and technological style in cordage, sandals, and projectile points, it is possible to distinguish marriage groups from the larger economic networks. Using artifacts from Bat Cave, Tularosa Cave, and Cordova Cave in the New Mexico Mogollon and from Fresnal Shelter in the Tularosa Basin, this research demonstrated that technological style in fiber artifacts is more geographically constrained than iconological style in sandals or projectile points, indicating that although the bands using these rock shelters came from different marriage groups, they participated in the same risk-sharing economic network.