Food, Diet and Population of Prehistoric Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico

Food, Diet and Population at Prehistoric Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico
Wilma Wetterstrom, 1986, School of American Research Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Arroyo Hondo Archeological Series, Volume 6

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This volume explores the relationships among the foods, diet, and population of Arroyo Hondo Pueblo. Several key issues are considered:  (1) the nature of food resources and diet, (2) how this food was produced in a marginal environment, (3) the effect this precarious diet had on the inhabitants, and (4) how diet was related to the settlement’s demographic structure and cultural changes. Wetterstrom’s inquiry focuses particularly on young children: how they responded to variation in food resources and how their health and mortality influenced the community.

From the analysis of botanical remains found at the site, the discussion begins with the three cultivars—corn, beans and squash—and sixteen species of wild plants that constituted the main vegetable element of the diet. Each of these is described in detail as they occurred at the site, with expanded comparative material from other archeological and ethnographic contexts. This is followed by an assessment of how much food the pueblo’s occupants were able to produce and collect. From her conclusion that the food resources at Arroyo Hondo were modest at best, Wetterstrom examines the effect of climate change on food resources and how life may have been conducted during major food shortages. 

The results of her analysis suggest that changes in food resources could have had a profound effect on the pueblo’s population patterns, with important implications for the functioning of the community. Specifically, it appears that lean periods would have meant a deficient diet for young children resulting in higher death rates and a skewed population profile. Later the community would have been faced with a shortage of productive adults resulting in negative consequences for food production, household structure, social organization, and intra-community relationships, suggesting the apparent impact of food on the cultural changes of a prehistoric community.

Reviews for Food, Diet, and Population at Prehistoric Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico

Adams, Frazier
1987 Review of Food, Diet, and Population at Prehistoric Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico, by Wilma Wetterstrom. Albuquerque Archaeological Society Newsletter 22: 5-6.

Book Details Pueblo Diet
1986 The Santa Fe New Mexican 26 December: 29.

Book Examines Precarious Diet Among Early Pueblo Dwellers
1987 Albuquerque Journal 7 January: 6.

Chartkoff, Joseph L.
1988 Review of Food, Diet, and Population at Prehistoric Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico, by Wilma Wetterstrom. The Artifact 26: 81-85.

Fontana, Bernard L.
1987 Review of Food, Diet, and Population at Prehistoric Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico, by Wilma Wetterstrom. Books of the Southwest March 1987: 4.

Foster, Michael S.
1989 Review of Food, Diet, and Population at Prehistoric Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico, by Wilma Wetterstrom. Southwestern Lore 55(3): 32-33.

Glassow, Michael A.
1988 Review of Food, Diet, and Population at Prehistoric Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico, by Wilma Wetterstrom. American Antiquity 53(3): 664-665.

Miller, Naomi
1988 Review of Food, Diet, and Population at Prehistoric Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico, by Wilma Wetterstrom. North American Archaeologist 9(4): 156-161.

Schultes, Richard Evans
1988 Review of Food, Diet, and Population at Prehistoric Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico, by Wilma Wetterstrom. Economic Botany 42(1): 28.

Wellin, E.
1987 Review of Food, Diet, and Population at Prehistoric Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico, by Wilma Wetterstrom. Choice May 1987: 364.

Wiseman, R. N.
1987 Review of Food, Diet, and Population at Prehistoric Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico, by Wilma Wetterstrom. El Palacio 93(1): 44-45.