Evidence of tobacco use and possibly the cultivation of tobacco, dates back to approximately the same time period.Īgave, especially agave murpheyi, was a major food source of the Hohokam and grown on dry hillsides where other crops would not grow. ![]() Cotton has been found at archaeological sites dating to about 1200 BCE in the Tucson basin in Arizona and was most likely cultivated by indigenous peoples in the region. ![]() More productive varieties were developed later by Southwestern farmers or introduced via Mesoamerica, though the drought-resistant tepary bean was native to the region. The earliest maize known to have been grown in the Southwest was a popcorn varietal measuring one to two inches long. Southwestern farmers probably began experimenting with agriculture by facilitating the growth of wild grains, such as amaranth and chenopods, and gourds for their edible seeds and shells. As various cultures developed over time, many of them shared similarities in family structure and religious beliefs. This area, comprised of modern-day Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada-and the states of Sonora and Chihuahua in northern Mexico, has seen successive prehistoric cultural traditions since approximately 12,000 years ago. The greater Southwest has long been occupied by hunter-gatherers and agricultural settlements. By the end of the fifteenth century, however, the construction of such large pueblos in this region had ceased.Įnvironmental changes allowed for many cultural traditions to flourish and develop similar social structures and religious beliefs. These people also constructed ceremonial ball courts similar to those of Mexico and Central America. In southern Arizona near Phoenix, the Hohokam culture also built impressive pueblos around 1300 AD. Around 1000 CE at Chaco Canyon in the San Juan Basin of northern New Mexico, a series of impressive roads connected walled compounds which consisted of pueblos. Such public projects suggest a formal system of government, indicative of a complex culture. These cultures constructed massive, multi-room mudbrick (adobe) structures known as pueblos and raised maize and other crops in this arid region through the large-scale construction of reservoirs and irrigation works. In the American southwest a number of different complex cultures emerged, beginning around 400 BCE, whose inhabitants were later known as the "Anasazi" or "Ancient Ones" to the Navajo-an indigenous American tribe from this region during the historical period. Shamanism: a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with a spirit world and channel transcendental energies into this world Irrigation: the act or process of irrigating, or the state of being irrigated especially, the operation of causing water to flow over lands for the purpose of nourishing plants ![]() Sandstone: a sedimentary rock produced by the consolidation and compaction of sand, cemented with clay ![]() In the southwest region of the United States and northern Mexico, remarkable complex cultures arose in an arid, semi-desert region.Īnalyze the differences between the Toltec, Aztec, Inca, and North American indigenous groupsĪnimism: the worldview that non-human entities-such as animals, plants, and inanimate objects-possess a spiritual essence
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