ABSTRACT
Baja California Sur represents one of the last great frontiers of North American archaeology. This chapter considers a pioneering effort in peninsula archaeology. The assumed interaction of humans and their cultural and natural environments is an important consideration for the archaeologist and shapes the scientist's discoveries, interpretations, and explanations. The ethnographic literature provided a baseline for comparing and contrasting the archaeological record with the past cultural observations of historic native groups by the explorers and missionaries. The Bahia Concepcion study focused primarily on the identification of environmental and cultural factors behind the spatial distribution of archaeological sites in the search for variables which might be associated with organizational aspects of cultural systems. The archaeological sites recorded have been grouped into eight general descriptive categories based on differences in the presence or absence of artifacts, features, and ecofactual materials. A series of Early and Middle Archaic periods is postulated for the Bahia Concepción region.
