ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a synthetic overview of the major material and historical trends outlined in Part II of this book and contextualizes these findings alongside complimentary evidence of Indigenous land-use practices drawn from the Archaeological Records Management System (ARMS) of New Mexico. Three major themes are outlined inthis discussion: (1) preliminary evidence for an east-west mobility circuit among Indigenous foragers living in the region between 5500 bce and 400 ce; (2) the role of the Rio Grande Gorge as a natural boundary structuring the mobility patterns of Numic-, Athabaskan-, and Tiwa-speaking peoples in the region after the 10th century; and (3) the emergence of new forms of boundary maintenance and hypermobility ushered in by European colonization. Throughout this chapter I highlight the need for archaeologists to adopt more flexible interpretive models that avoid unidimensional definitions of occupation and that embrace the often messy relationship between the material record, historical archives, ethnic identity, and chronologicall categorization.
