Traditional cultural ecology, with its "geocentric" perspective, is most concerned with technological and related social aspects of economic adaptation to the material world. To supplement and qualify this view, an "anthropocentric" perspective with an emphasis on symbolic systems and modes of adaptation to the world as perceived by humans is offered. The cognitive core of culture is expressed in behavior that embodies certain principles underlying figurative expression in language and aspects of magic and taboo, curing practices, mythology, ritual, art, and innovation. An example of the cognitive approach is provided by an analysis of the symbolic systems in which the calumet, atlatl survivals, initiation weapons, and kinnikinnick functioned in historic times. This analysis suggests the possible origin and function of the Hopewellian platform pipe and offers insights into other prehistoric ceremonialism and the process of innovation.

The contributions of the earth sciences, particularly geomorphology and sedimentary petrography, to the interpretation and environmental reconstruction of archaeological contexts is called "geoarchaeology." The physical context provides a palaeo-environmental legacy liable to patterning and interpretation just as artifacts imply prehistoric cultural activity. Through field study and laboratory analyses, the geoarchaeologist elaborates the micro-, meso-, and macro-environments of a site, and provides input for erecting prehistoric human activity patterns in time and space. The categories of information that must be examined in the field, the range of interpretive problems that confront the field worker, and the laboratory techniques which corroborate field interpretations can be illustrated by examining archaeology in an alluvial site. These considerations emphasize the need to involve the geomorphologist in all aspects of the design and execution of an archaeological excavation.

The analysis of the spatial distributions of artifacts on archaeological floors has potential for the recognition and interpretation of cultural patterns represented by prehistoric remains. This study emphasizes the use of multiple procedures for the separate problems of pattern detection, estimation, and prediction. Aggregative and segregative definitions are proposed for three artifact class associational modes. Definitions are also proposed for general and special pattern prediction problems. An application to the Mousterian site of Rosh Ein Mor in Israel, shows that multiple procedures can be extremely advantageous in the interpretation of general complex patterns.

Excavations by the BYU-New World Archaeological Foundation at the site of Tzutzuculi on the Chiapas coast of Mexico, revealed two engraved monuments flanking a central stairway of a late Middle Preclassic period pyramidal platform. This report focuses on these two monuments, discussing their context, dating, and style. The context at its most general level involves the corresponding platform complex, which in its layout has a general resemblance to the Olmec site of La Venta. As for the monuments-one a were-jaguar representation, the other a serpent-dragon figure-they too, in their style, are identified as being Olmec. Moreover, their combined imagery, possibly expressing a dualistic viewpoint, is consistent with other Olmec iconographic examples. At Tzutzuculi, however, this imagery has for the first time in Olmec form been found in direct association with platform building.

Surface survey on the piedmont near the present village of Xoxocotlan, Oaxaca, Mexico, has revealed the pattern of prehistoric settlement around an irrigation canal that distributed water from a dammed reservoir located on the flanks of Monte Alban. Intensive systematic collection techniques have permitted quantitative statements to be made about the density of occupation and the contribution of the irrigation system to the food supply of Monte Alban.

This paper describes the contemporary clay mine at Hacienda Yo’ K'at, Yucatan, and documents the archaeological association of a restored sherd-tool of Puuc slateware in a collapsed tunnel of the mine. The shape of the sherd and its in situ position suggest that it was used to gather clay in the mine during the period of A.D. 800-1000. The paper suggests the relationship of these data to the neutron activation studies of Yucatan pottery and their contribution to the study of ancient Maya trade.

A major theoretical issue in studies of the cultural ecology of Central Mexico has been the role of irrigation in the evolution of the state in that area. A major methodological problem has been the location and dating of prehistoric canal systems. A recent discovery near Xalostoc, of a stratified canal system (representing three distinct periods) in the exposed profiles of contemporary adobe extraction pits, offers an ideal situation for dating of prehistoric canals. All three are apparently Pre-Coyotlatelco in date and the settlement history suggests that some of them are contemporary with Teotihuacan.

Aerial thermograms of an area in north-central Arizona immediately to the north of Merriam Crater have revealed the existence of parallel arrays of alternating ridge and swale linear features in the ashfall zone of Sunset Crater. The patterns are not easily identified on simultaneously acquired panchromatic photographs. Pollen and soil analyses confirm the highly geometric pattern to be a previously unrecognized prehistoric agricultural field. Recovery of Sinagua sherds of known age found at nearby living sites and in the field indicates that the farming activity occurred between A.D. 1065 and 1250. After 700 years of abandonment, local plant succession for the field has not yet fully re-established the probable former shrub community, apparently due to differences in physical and chemical properties existing between field and nonfield soil areas, related perhaps to prehistoric agricultural practices.

It is argued that conflict and the need for defense arose in the Late Woodland Stage of the Northeast and Ontario in response to competition for a vital resource, deer hides. Furthermore, the distribution of populations and the size of hunting territories can be directly linked to sustained yields of this scarce good.

Experiments were performed to establish correlations between the edge characteristics of a series of tools and the marks they produce when applied to bone. Pressure and angle of application, length of blade, and motion used during the cutting stroke, were found to be important variables that affect the shape of tool marks. Using cross sections of butchering marks from archaeological sites, it was possible to establish associations between various classes of tools and specific tasks.

A hydration rate for obsidian of 1.3 μm2 per 1,000 radiocarbon years has been calculated for the lower Columbia River Valley of Oregon and Washington. The rate provides a means for dating prehistoric archaeological sites containing obsidian in terms of their radiocarbon age.

Analysis of a series of negative impressions in fired clay recovered during the 1975 excavations at Icehouse Bottom (40MR23), Tennessee, indicates the production and/or use of both single element textiles and basketry at that site. One type of single element textile, knotted looping, is represented by a single specimen while one of the three major subclasses of basketry is also present. The latter includes 19 samples of a single structural type of twining. The technical characteristics of this, the oldest well dated "perishable" assemblage from east of the Mississippi River, are discussed and the assemblage is briefly compared to others in eastern and western North America.

Pendergast's assertion that a Teotihuacan cache at Altun Ha, Belize, should be dated to the earliest part of the Protoclassic period is questioned in the light of recent findings of the ceramics of that period. The new evidence also tends to confirm the belief that the Floral Park ceramic complex coexisted with and did not totally displace the Chicanel phase.

One aspect of the recent article by Drennan (1976) merits some additional discussion. This has to do with the units of time that can be discriminated by seriation methods. One advance claimed for the new method proposed is that it allows for time placement within 25 years or so, stated as “ … finer than most traditional seriation.” In an article published 17 years ago, I showed this degree of time discrimination, with a much simpler graphical method of seriation.

Four current approaches to assessing archaeological significance in contract archaeology are reviewed. It is argued that three of these approaches are inadequate bases for assessing significance. Explicit, problem-oriented research designs seem to provide the most promising approach to the problem of archaeological significance.

Archaeological data from Iglesia Vieja, Mexico, are discussed in terms of other published research. Rather than superseding and invalidating the research, the Iglesia Vieja data are seen to closely conform to current interpretations on the Early Preclassic in central Mexico.

Replies to Turnbaugh's “An on-campus alternative to the archaeological field school” (American Antiquity 41:208-11) argue that the context in which the on-campus alternative is undertaken is important, as with any field school. At the same time the on-campus field school has significant value. An additional alternative to field schools is proposed.