ABSTRACT
This part conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters. The part shows settlement clusters separated by no-man's lands came about in southern Arizona during the Classic period, and it appears likely that these clusters represent polities that were in conflict with one another. It provides an excellent example of how diverse and otherwise obscure domains of data can be fruitfully combined to produce new archaeological knowledge. The part examines the dynamism of southwestern archaeology and the increasing fascination for the late prehistoric/protohistoric periods, which Brew aptly called a "Golden Age" of southwestern culture history. It discusses systemic thresholds, one caused by European diseases and the other by technological changes in food processing. The part considers the destruction of the Serrana statelets by European diseases. By the 17th century, the Serrana statelets had devolved due to disease and slaving, and "merciless acculturation" soon transformed the protohistoric Pueblo Indians from their modern descendants.
