Desert Culture
Desert culture refers to a historical tradition of small, mobile hunting and gathering populations that adapted to the arid environments of western North America, beginning around 7000 B.C.E. This culture was characterized by band-level societies, often consisting of extended families, who moved across the landscape in cycles to exploit various seasonal resources. The lifestyle included a reliance on portable tools and materials, such as baskets and milling stones, which facilitated the processing of plants and small game. Archaeological sites, like Danger Cave in Utah and Bat Cave in New Mexico, provide insights into the technological advancements and daily life of these populations, revealing evidence of early basketry, stone tools, and even the introduction of maize in later periods. While initially coined as a broad term by Jesse Jennings, the concept of Desert culture has evolved to recognize the distinct phases and regional variations that emerged over time, particularly during the Archaic period. This flexible cultural adaptation allowed Desert culture populations to thrive despite environmental challenges, making it one of the oldest and most enduring indigenous traditions in North America.
Desert Culture
Category: Prehistoric and modern tradition
Date: Since 8000 b.c.e.
Location: Southwest, Great Basin
Cultures affected: Paiute, Shoshone
The term “Desert culture” is used to refer to a widespread pattern of small, mobile, hunting and gathering populations adapted to dry environments of western North America. The Desert culture tradition begins around 7000 b.c.e. and continues into the historic period with peoples such as the Paiute of the Great Basin. In general, this term—coined by Jesse Jennings in the 1950’s—has been replaced by more specific cultural phases in different geographical regions that emphasize regional and temporal variations as revealed by increasingly detailed archaeological data. The majority of these occur during a time referred to by archaeologists as the Archaic period.
As originally conceived, Desert culture referred to a lifestyle characterized by small social groups or band-level societies composed of extended families numbering, at most, twenty-five to thirty individuals. These groups moved across the landscape in annual cycles, taking advantage of a wide variety of different resources that varied with altitude, rainfall, soil conditions, and seasonal availability. Material possessions were limited to portable objects that were easily manufactured as needed. Among these were baskets and milling stones, used in the transport and processing of plants and seeds, and chipped-stone Native American projectile points. Vegetable foods were supplemented with hunting, primarily of small mammals, birds, and reptiles and mainly through the use of traps, snares, and simple weapons.
The earliest (and latest) manifestations of Desert culture occur in the Great Basin region. Danger Cave, in western Utah, yielded traces of slab milling stones, twined basketry, bone awls, and various small projectile points dating to between 8000 and 7000 b.c.e. Coiled basketry was found in later levels, accompanied by wooden darts, skewers, and pins, a variety of bone implements, and cordage made from hides and vegetable fibers.
One of the regional variants of the Desert culture is the Cochise culture of the southwestern United States. Its earliest phase, Sulphur Spring, dates to about 7000 b.c.e. and is characterized by percussion-flaked projectile points together with simple manos and metates. It is followed by several thousand years of successive phases, known mostly from open sites, that provide evidence of gradual changes in both chipped- and ground-stone technology. At the site of Bat Cave (New Mexico), evidence for the use of maize appears in the context of a late Cochise tradition occupation.
The Desert culture, in its broadest conception, is the oldest and most persistent indigenous tradition in North America. This is probably attributable both to its simplicity and to its versatility in the face of environmental change. Desert culture represents the most flexible adaptation to a landscape in which natural food resources were varied and widely dispersed. Even during difficult climatic conditions, the Desert culture way of life permitted the survival of small populations as populations of large game hunters declined.