Hostname: page-component-76dd75c94c-28gj6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T07:39:00.977Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Ethnobotanical Aspects of Snaketown, a Hohokam Village in Southern Arizona

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Vorsila L. Bohrer*
Affiliation:
Department of BiologyUniversity of Massachusetts-Boston

Abstract

The Hohokam grew maize as early as 300 B.C. Common beans were introduced by Estrella phase (100 B.C.-A.D. 100) and cotton was cultivated by the following phase (A.D. 100-300). Sahuaro and mesquite seeds supplemented agricultural products especially when crops failed. The Hohokam apparently harvested two plantings per year. Opuntia seeds were eaten when crops failed and sedge seeds were consumed during optimal conditions for growth of all local vegetation. Pollen analysis suggests cholla buds were eaten and that there was continual expansion of agricultural land from Sweetwater through Gila Butte phases. Coniferous timbers were incorporated into houses during the last phase (Sacaton, A.D. 1100-1200) of the occupation of Snaketown.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bell, W. H., and Castetter, E. F. 1937 The utilization of mesquite and screwbean by the aborigines in the American Southwest. University of New Mexico Bulletin, No. 314, Biological Series 5:155.Google Scholar
Bohrer, V. L. 1960 Zuni agriculture. El Palacio 67:181202.Google Scholar
Castetter, E. F., and Bell, W. H. 1937 The aboriginal utilization of the tall cacti in the American Southwest. University of New Mexico Bulletin, No. 307, Biological Series 5:148.Google Scholar
Castetter, E. F., and Bell, W. H. 1942 Pima and Papago Indian agriculture. University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Castetter, E. F., and Bell, W. H. 1951 Yuman Indian agriculture. University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Castetter, E. F., and Underhill, R. 1935 The ethnobiology of the Papago Indians. University of New Mexico Bulletin, No. 275, Biological Series 4:184.Google Scholar
Cocannouer, J. A. 1964 Weeds. Devin Press.Google Scholar
Curtin, L. S. M. 1949 By the prophet of the earth. San Vicente Foundation.Google Scholar
Cutler, H. C. 1956 Vegetal material from the site of San Cayetano. In The Upper Pima of San Cayetano del Tumacacori, edited by C. C. DiPeso. Amerind Foundation Publication, No. 7:459460.Google Scholar
Cutler, H. C., and Whitaker, T. W. 1961 History and distribution of the cultivated cucurbits in the Americas. American Antiquity 26:469485.Google Scholar
Drucker, P. 1941 Culture element distributions: XVII Yuman-Piman. Anthropological Records 6:91230.Google Scholar
Faegri, K., and Iversen, J. 1964 Text-book of pollen analysis. Hafner Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Ferry, J. F., and Ward, H. S. 1959 Fundamentals of plant physiology. The Macmillan Company.Google Scholar
Flannery, K. V. 1965 The ecology of the early food production in Mesopotamia. Science 147:12471256.Google Scholar
Gifford, E. W. 1940 Culture element distributions: XII Apache-Pueblo. Anthropological Records 4:1207.Google Scholar
Gladwin, H. S., Haury, E. W., Sayles, E. B., and Gladwin, N. 1937 Excavations at Snaketown I: material culture. Medallion Papers, No. 25.Google Scholar
Herron, J. W. 1953 Study of seed production, seed identification, and seed germination of Chenopodium spp. Cornell University Agricultural Station Memoir 320:324.Google Scholar
Hevly, R. H., Mehringer, P. J. Jr., and Yocum, H. G. 1965 Modern pollen rain in the Sonoran Desert. Journal of the Arizona Academy of Science 3:123135.Google Scholar
Jones, V. H. 1941 The nature and status of ethnobotany. Chronica Botanica 6:219221.Google Scholar
Jørgensen, S. 1963 Early postglacial in Aamosen: geological and pollen analytical investigations of Maglemosian settlements in the West-Zealand Bog Aamosen. Danmars Geologiske Undersøgelse, Series 2, No. 87.Google Scholar
Kaplan, L. 1956 The cultivated beans of the prehistoric Southwest. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 43:189251.Google Scholar
Mehringer, P. J. Jr. 1967 Pollen analysis of the Tule Springs area, Nevada. In Pleistocene studies in southern Nevada, edited by H. M. Wormington and D. Ellis, Nevada State Museum Anthropological Papers, No. 13.Google Scholar
Mehringer, P. J. Jr., and Haynes, C. V. Jr. 1965 The pollen evidence for the environment of early man and extinct mammals at the Lehner Mammoth site, Southeastern Arizona. American Antiquity 31:1723.Google Scholar
Parker, K. F. 1959 Arizona ranch, farm and garden weeds. Agricultural Extension Service Circular 265:1288.Google Scholar
Russell, F. 1908 The Pima Indians. Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of A merican Ethnology, pp. 17389.Google Scholar
Sinclair, G. B., and Dunn, D. B. 1961 Surface printing of plant leaves for phylogenetic studies. Stain Technology 36:299304.Google Scholar
Stewart, O. C. 1941 Culture element distributions: XIV Northern Paiute. Anthropological Records 4:361445.Google Scholar
Stewart, O. C. 1942 Culture element distributions: XVIII Ute-Southern Paiute. Anthropological Records 6:231354.Google Scholar
Webb, G. 1959 A Pima remembers. University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Whiting, A. F. 1939 Ethnobotany of the Hopi. Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 15:1120.Google Scholar
Willey, G. R., and Mcgimsey, C. R. 1954 The Monagrillo culture of Panama. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University 49(2): 1158.Google Scholar