New Methods for Understanding the Southwest Archaic: A Density Dependent Approach to Prehistoric Behavior

The nature of the Southwestern Archaic record, reflecting several thousand years of occupation by small mobile foraging groups, provides a crucial methodological and a conceptual dilemma for archaeologists working in the area. At the heart of this dilemma is the relationship between this kind of archaeological record and the concept of the archaeological site, which is central to contemporary thinking. As broadly defined, an archaeological site may be "any place of any size where there are found traces of human activity or occupation." In practice however, in the Southwest and elsewhere, the site tends to be a specific geographical locality with implied or identified boundaries ("site size"), often containing one or more structures, features, bone piles, etc. In recent studies a "site" is often located at specific distance relationships or other similar "sites," resources, etc. Throughout most of the development of Southwest archaeology, this was a sufficient pragmatic usage and it is certainly deeply embedded in the literature. Recently, the concept has become codified and rigidified in the burgeoning legislation related to the National Register and to Cultural Resource Management archaeology.