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

Author(s): Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman; Nicole Mathwich

Year: 2017

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.

Cite this Record

Cattle Ranching and O’odham Communities in the Pimería Alta: Zooarchaeological and Historical Perspectives. Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman, Nicole Mathwich. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Fort Worth, TX. 2017 ( tDAR id: 435276)

Keywords

Temporal Keywords
Colonial

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 382