title: The diffusion of maize to the southwestern United States and its impact.
abstract: Our understanding of the initial period of agriculture in the southwestern United States has been transformed by recent discoveries that establish the presence of maize there by 2100 cal. B.C. (calibrated calendrical years before the Christian era) and document the processes by which it was integrated into local foraging economies. Here we review archaeological, paleoecological, linguistic, and genetic data to evaluate the hypothesis that Proto-Uto-Aztecan (PUA) farmers migrating from a homeland in Mesoamerica introduced maize agriculture to the region. We conclude that this hypothesis is untenable and that the available data indicate instead a Great Basin homeland for the PUA, the breakup of this speech community into northern and southern divisions approximately 6900 cal. B.C. and the dispersal of maize agriculture from Mesoamerica to the US Southwest via group-to-group diffusion across a Southern Uto-Aztecan linguistic continuum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, PO Box 37102, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA.
authors.forename: William L
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Merrill
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Hard
authors.forename: Jonathan B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Mabry
authors.forename: Gayle J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Fritz
authors.forename: Karen R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Roney
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: MacWilliams
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000266:history*; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000266:history*; D004641:Emigration and Immigration / Q000266:history; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D015206:Southwestern United States; D003313:Zea mays / Q000266:history*