Cattle Ranching and O’odham Communities in the Pimería Alta: Zooarchaeological and Historical Perspectives

Summary

Cattle and other European livestock were important to the economic and cultural development of western North America; however, the celebrated cowboy and vaquero cultures of the region emerged out of a complex Spanish colonial tradition that began with missionized native peoples who became adept at ranching. The Pimería Alta, what is today northern Sonora and southern Arizona, provides an excellent case study of the many ways that the cattle introduced at missions became rapidly intertwined with O’odham native cultures and lifeways. Cattle connected desert farmers to distant colonial markets, provided a new source of protein and grease, served as the foundation for a new raiding economy, diverted labor from traditional farming practices, and spurred Anglo colonialism in the region. The impacts of cattle on the people of the colonial-period Pimería Alta were multifaceted, and are visible in both the zooarchaeological and historical record.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017   •
• Honoring Cowtown: Cattle Husbandry in Historical Zooarchaeology

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 382