ABSTRACT
Subsistence stress is a common explanation for changes in economic and social patterns inferred from the archaeological record of the prehistoric Southwest. While some attention has been paid to technological strategies for intensifying cultivation, little effort has been made to go beyond this limited aspect of technology, and explore how a range of technological behaviors may have been responsive to subsistence stress. Technological strategies can be used to reduce the probability of subsistence risk and stress. This chapter discusses the kinds of technological strategies that would facilitate economic strategies of resource specialization and diversification. It considers hunting, gathering, and cultivating practices. Diversification of wild resource use can be accomplished by adding onto the investment in cultivation, increasing the labor requirements of all members of society, and remaining in large aggregated settlements. Alternatively, it may be accomplished by dispersion into smaller, more mobile groups that invest less in cultivation.
