Prehistoric Southwestern Cultural Divisions
The American Southwest has long been occupied by hunter/gatherers and agricultural people. This area, identified with the current states of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada, and areas of northern Mexico, has seen successive prehistoric cultural traditions since approximately 12,000 years ago. According to anthropologist and popular author Brian Fagan, it is likely that both ceramic and irrigation technology were indigenous developments of these cultures.
Many contemporary cultural traditions exist within the American southwest, including Yuman-speaking peoples inhabiting the Colorado River valley, the uplands, and Baja California, O'odham peoples of Southern Arizona and northern Sonora, and the Pueblo peoples of Arizona and New Mexico. In addition, the Apache and Navajo peoples, whose ancestral roots lie in the Athabaskan-speaking peoples in Canada, entered the southwest during the 15th and 16th century and are a major modern presence in the area.
Read more about Prehistoric Southwestern Cultural Divisions: Paleo-Indian Tradition, Southwestern Archaic Tradition, Advanced Cultures, Cultural Distinctions, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words prehistoric, cultural and/or divisions:
“Of course
the New Testament is very small.
Its mouth opens four times
as out-of-date as a prehistoric monster,
yet somehow man-made....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“They’re semiotic phantoms, bits of deep cultural imagery that have split off and taken on a life of their own, like those Jules Verne airships that those old Kansas farmers were always seeing.... Semiotic ghosts. Fragments of the Mass Dream, whirling past in the wind of my passage.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)
“Nothing does more to activate Christian divisions than talk about Christian unity.”
—Conor Cruise O’Brien (b. 1917)