ABSTRACT
Assessments of mobility versus sedentism for archaeological cultures necessarily take the form of arguments. Although there are a number of more or less consensually recognized attributes which tend to be considered, there are no unequivocal classes of evidence of sedentism or mobility. Both redundancy and diversity in resources contribute to the probability of preagricultural sedentism in the Tucson Basin. The few additional taxa on low uplands such as the Tucson or Tortolita mountains are generally within a day's round trip from a residential base near water. Direct analogs are lacking for accumulating survey and excavation evidence of early cultivators in the Tucson Basin. In portions of the Tucson Basin and Sonoran Desert with optimal environmental constellations of water, staples, and accessible resource diversity, Archaic populations just prior to appearance of cultigens could have been largely or fully sedentary. In the Tucson Basin, locational continuity can be seen in small sites closely tied to subsistence activities.
