HOHOKAM
Crop pests and diseases were controlled by taking care not to over-irrigate or to allow standing water and humidity: this attracts insects and plant rot. Soil amendments were burnt crop residue and plant debris, including mesquite leaves which are natural pesticides. Fertilizers were stabilized human manure and heavily diluted human urine which, if not stabi- lized and diluted, would otherwise burn the crops.
Human wastes were collected: urine in clay pots and fecal matter in baskets for stabilization prior for use as natural crop fertilizers. Otherwise, the natural alluvial soils were very low in organic matter, nutrients and fertility. Because the natural soils were well-drained, clay and silt might have been added to improve their water-retaining capacities.
Much attention was given to scheduling planting, irrigating and harvesting. Harvested crops were stored in cool dry pots and kilns, to avoid moisture that attracts insects and vermin. Planning also focused on food preparation with adequate fresh water to aid digestion. All of this was achieved without metal tools or wheels, surveying or construction equipment, writ- ten language, maps and plot plans to record these practices or for future use. Thus, much depended on the wise memory of the elders.
How a young girl finds a suitable husband
According to a modified Pascua Tribe Yaqui legend, a young girl might pick a husband in this manner. She dreams herself to become an eagle and throws a branch into the sky hop- ing to attract a male eagle. When an engaging male eagle retrieves the branch, she throws a larger and heavier branch into the sky hoping to attract a stronger male eagle. In this way, through repetition, she finally decides to mate with the strongest eagle she can identify. Then, she dreams herself back to a human girl and her chosen strongest eagle into a human man to be her husband. In this way, she assures herself she will have a strong marriage, protected by a strong husband who will father her strong children.
Oro in the north, several thousand families lived in hundreds of clan settlements, each consisting of a few tens of families in extended family mud-walled, mud and palm-thatched- roofed, circular or oval recessed-pit adobes. Pit houses varied considerably in shape and size. They typically were circular with about 12-15 foot diameters for nuclear families or oval or rectangular at about 12-15 feet wide and 30-45 feet long with rounded corners for extended families. The clan leaders typically had larger houses with as many as 20 to 30 residents.
Although the people worked cooperatively in common and lived in sedentary villages, some were more productive and prosperous than others. The more prosperous families hired more labor from other families. They produced more excess food and fiber. They traded for a greater variety of foods: a large dependable supply of seawater foods including fish, crabs, clams, oysters and turtles from Bahia Adair and Estero de Morua on the Gulf of California and spices, and nuts, as well as cosmetics, perfumes, textiles, clothing, pottery, baskets, wine, jewelry, ball court seats, servants and of course wives. They may have been more generous than others.
Current anthropological and archeological thinking esti- mates that average adult Hohokam life spans were 30 to 40 years. Infant and child mortality was high due to childhood
A desert Southwest tale of cooperation
Every full moon, the animals would gather in an abandoned pit house to discuss the upcoming month. So many would want to attend uninvited that Coyote suggested they install a wooden gate made from occotea. One afternoon await- ing the full moon, Coyote, Eagle, Bluebird, Quail, Bear and Rattlesnake were disturbed by a thumping outside the gate. It was pesty cottontail Rabbit thumping on the gate to be allowed in. Coyote said, “Tell Rabbit to go away.” Bear yelled in a deep voice, “Go away.” It was quiet for a few minutes. But then, the thumping continued. Coyote said, “Throw some sand at Rabbit!” Bear picked up some sand from the pit house floor and threw it at Rabbit. In was quiet for a few minutes. But then again, the thumping returned. Finally, Coyote shouted, “Kill Rabbit!” Bear picked up a black-rock pointed spear and ran it through Rabbit. It was finally quiet for a few minutes. But yet again, the thumping returned. Finally, Coyote said, “Okay, let thumper Rabbit in the pit house.” Bear opened the gate and Rabbit’s thumping heart rolled into the house and was quiet.
diarrhea, malnutrition, dehydration, parasites, infections, poor medical care and lack of access to water.
The Hohokam and Geology:
All of the Hohokam territory lies within the Southern Basin and Range Province, in which crustal extension, related to changes in the subduction regime at the western margin of North America, has been approximately 100% since the early Miocene. The Phoenix and Tucson areas are less than 200 miles from the Gulf of California, thus enabling the Hohokam to trade with coastal communities for salt, dried fish and other commodities.
Crustal extension was accompanied by widespread volca- nism and gave rise to linear ranges of fault-uplifted mountains between wide valleys, whose underlying grabens are filled with debris eroded from the mountains. Since it has been nearly 20 m.y. since these processes began in this part of the Basin and Range, both the mountains and the volcanic cover have been deeply eroded, exposing rocks as old as 1.8 billion years in the mountain cores. The volcanics, such as the 20-30 million-year- old andesite of Black Mountain in Tucson, and many of the ancient rocks are of mafic affinities. Soils derived from these rocks should be finer-grained, more clay- and nutrient-rich than the alluvial soils adjacent to the Salt, Gila and Santa Cruz Rivers, which are derived from the much older meta- morphic rocks of surrounding and nearby mountains (Figure 2). However, no preference for these mafic-derived soils is apparent from the map of the canals (Figure 2). The alluvial soils, especially those on older alluvium that has been exposed to chemical weathering over a long period of time, were among the most suitable for Hohokam crop irrigation because they were generally flat, deep, well-drained and adjacent to the somewhat perennial or “live” streams. It is noticeable in the composite of Figure 2 that many of the Hohokam irrigation works in the Phoenix area are concentrated on these older alluvial deposits (Qm on the map), and Figure 4 illustrates the reddish tinge due to deep weathering.
Where did the Hohokam go?
Where did the Hohokam, “ancient people” or “someone who is all gone,” go? Some say they died out from drought, disease, soil salinization, famine, warfare or internal social conflict.
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