The typological schemes constructed by many archaeologists to explain the rise and fall of civilizations have neither accounted for the processual changes involved in the evolution of social complexity nor contributed to the development of a comparative method for considering regularities and variation in social behavior. This paper begins with a review of the foundations on which archaeologists have based their conceptions of social evolution. A critical test of the assumptions of “evolutionism” is then provided by case studies in Mesopotamian civilization in which materials from both preliterate and literate times are examined. Using ancient, emic documentation that is recovered as part of the archaeological record, such studies may logically be termed ethnoarchaeological. It is suggested that the customary analogy between social change and biological evolution is inappropriate and that a new problem orientation will facilitate more productive research into the dynamics of social evolution.

Recently several models have been proposed for the origin and evolution of lowland Maya civilization. These models share a basic spatial framework, the culture area, which is logically tied to a particular theoretical approach to the emergence of lowland Maya civilization. The culture area approach rests on the premise that sociocultural innovation occurs as a localized response to local natural and social conditions. Such innovation subsequently diffuses outside the local area through successful competition with alternatives. The empirical archaeological expectations of models based upon this approach are not satisfied at the site of Cerros, a Late Preclassic center on the coast of northern Belize. An alternative approach, the interaction sphere, better accommodates the evidence from Cerros and other Preclassic sites in the Maya Lowlands. The culture area models, the evidence from Cerros, and the interaction sphere approach and its theoretical ramifications are discussed.

This paper reviews the relative feasibility of interior and coastal routes for early man entering southern North America from Beringia during the late Pleistocene. Paleoenvironmental and archaeological data suggest that a chain of sea-level refugia around the North Pacific coast could have provided a real alternative to the interior “ice-free” corridor and that maritime cultural adaptations may have been among the first to arrive south of Canada.

Aquatic fauna, and fish in particular, have had an important place in a number of theories of the development of complex cultural manifestations. Using experimental data, a number of specific characteristics of fish usage in riverine evironments have been evaluated. In one case 45.5 kg of fish were harvested in 4 man-hours from a floodplain slough using only two logs. The energy represented by the catch was sufficient for 9.9 man-days or a return of 60 to 1 [60 hours of energy per hour of labor]. Sufficient protein was produced for a return of 384 to 1 [384 hours of protein per hour of labor]. The species composition of the catch was also informative, with 50% of the weight contributed by gizzard shad, Dorosoma cepedianum, a small fish. It is demonstrated that archaeological recovery techniques are heavily biased against the recovery of gizzard shad and other small fish remains. The nature of this bias and considerations for compensation are discussed.

Petrographic analysis of potsherds from Dzibilchaltun and other Maya sites conclusively establishes the presence of volcanic ash temper in ceramics from northern Yucatan. The distribution of ash-tempered ceramics in time and space suggests import of ash in bulk from sources in highland Guatemala or El Salvador in exchange for salt. The homogeneous nature of the ash in northwestern Yucatan supports the idea that certain trading organizations enjoyed exclusive access to that region, while competing for markets in other lowland areas.

Recent excavations in Belize have resulted in the discovery of an earlier period of sedentary occupation than has hitherto been documented in the Maya Lowlands. The Swasey phase is stratigraphically antecedent to occupations of the early Middle Formative, the earliest horizon located until now, and associated radiocarbon dates suggest a persistence from 2000–1000 b.c./2500–1300 B.C. The ceramic and lithic material culture of the phase are described, together with architectural construction and burial practice, and the overall cultural identity is recognized as ancestral to the known Maya Lowland Formative. External contacts of the Cuello site are documented by exotic minerals, and the possible external antecedents for the Swasey ceramic tradition are canvassed.

Documentary data reveal the Aztec marketing system in the Valley of Mexico to have been a highly developed and complex institution. Examination of this information shows that the Aztec regional economy fits the requirements of classical central place theory as developed by Christaller. A central place analysis of Aztec settlement locations is presented, and it is concluded that commercial factors were of primary importance in shaping the settlement pattern in the Valley of Mexico. This does not rule out political, ecological, and other factors, whose roles in the settlement system are discussed. The implications of these results in terms of the Aztec economy and its development over time are briefly considered, and comparative data are mentioned.

Turrialba, a multicomponent quarry and manufacturing site in eastern Costa Rica, has yielded in surface collections 18 fluted points, fragments, and preforms. Both North and South American paleo-Indian point types are represented. Also present are keeled scrapers, end scrapers with lateral spurs, large flake side scrapers, burins, knives, and large blades. Turrialba is as yet undated, but future excavations at the site will be crucial in understanding the diffusion and development of the fluted point tradition in the Americas.

An archaeological example of simple watertable farming dating to the beginning of the Early Intermediate period in the Viru Valley, northern Peru, is reported. This technique was deployed by functionally differentiated segments of a single community, one stressing fishing and the other farming. Analyses of pollens indicate that Zea, Leguminosae, and Solonaceae were grown in two separate field systems.

Excavation in Largo-Gallina phase sites supports the interpretation that towers were primarily defensive structures. There is some evidence that towers also had a storage use. It is interesting to note that the use of defensive and specialized, village-wide storage structures coincides temporally with a period of environmental deterioration in the American Southwest.

To determine the pattern of selective utilization of animal species by prehistoric human populations, it is first necessary to quantify the relative importance of species of animals in the diet of prehistoric human groups through analysis of archaeologically recovered faunal samples. These values are then compared with estimates of the relative availability of different species of animals in the environment. Such estimates of the relative availability of animal species in prehistoric habitat situations, usually quantified in terms of biomass, are obtained by projecting data from modern analog situations into the past. When attempting to reconstruct prehistoric biotic communities in this manner, it is important to be aware of a number of possible sources of bias and to evaluate and apply modern wildlife data according to a set of interrelated principles. Sources of bias and criteria for selecting modern wildlife analog data are discussed.

Cultural resource management is often considered to end when endangered resources are collected or excavated. Actually, this is only an early step in the process. An increasing proportion of our preserved cultural heritage is being managed in museums, and it is in museums that much future archaeological research will have to be done. This brief essay reviews the role of museums in cultural resource management and points to the need for a careful evaluation of the adequacy of current archaeological curation systems.

An attempt to employ probabilistic subsampling in a wooded study area is reviewed. Errors committed in attempts to test hypotheses about statistical associations are identified, and more suitable procedures are suggested. The site-location potential of regional subsampling is considered. On theoretical grounds it is concluded that regional subsampling employing small subunits in areas of low site density is probably inefficient and biased when used as a search procedure.