ABSTRACT
Controversy has developed over the role of agriculture in the pithouse occupations of the mountain Mogollon region. This chapter examines the degree of dependence on cultigens during the Early Pithouse period and during the transition to pueblo architecture in the Forestdale, Pinelawn, and Mimbres valleys of the mountain Mogollon. It aims to develop a way to infer approximate relative agricultural dependence based on the mean length of manos from an occupation. The chapter examines agricultural dependence increased between pithouse and pueblo occupations in all cases. Groundstone size and/or shape has been used to differentiate hunting and gathering from agricultural economies and to show increased use of cultigens. Grinding is mechanically inefficient due to the indirect manner in which energy is delivered through equipment to material. The chapter concludes that substantial dependence on agriculture occurred in the Forestdale and Mimbres valleys by AD. 500-700, but less in the Pinelawn Valley.
