ABSTRACT
The diffusion of agriculture should, therefore, offer an excellent view of decision-making with respect to why agriculture was a viable subsistence option. According to Berry, archaeologists have unintentionally obscured the dynamic patterns of the past by lumping processes–like the adoption of agriculture–into culture historical periods demarcated by arbitrary and perhaps meaningless temporal boundaries. The use of arbitrary excavation units is a criticism that can be leveled at all the pioneering researchers in early southwestern agriculture and even some of their more descendants. Certainly the primary concern for archaeologists was placing agriculture within existing culture historical frameworks. An explanation has to account for the conditions in which a shift to food production by foragers would be a more acceptable strategy than some other sort of organizational change. The diffusion of agriculture should, therefore, offer an excellent view of decision-making with respect to why agriculture was a viable subsistence option.
