ABSTRACT
The Jornada Mogollon region has traditionally been viewed as peripheral to the major regional systems in the Greater Southwest. In explaining sedentism in the Jornada then, one must both account for the late initial shift to settled life and accommodate evidence for the continuation of high residential mobility. Sedentism seems to be related to agricultural intensification and, presumably, to population growth. By testing models of fluctuating regional systemic adjustments, archaeologists will better define the range of variability in adaptive systems as a step toward eventually explaining the patterns of sedentism. The vast majority of Pithouse period sites in the Jornada region lack the features and artifactual content expected for sedentary occupations. The use of very large settlement/subsistence areas appears to be indicated for the Jornada Mogollon Pithouse period. Pueblo period settlement patterns reflect a distinct change in land use patterns from the dispersal characteristic of the preceding Pithouse occupations.
