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Re: INFO REQUEST: Precontact Trade in NA
David T. Hughes (dthughes@CS.TWSU.EDU)
Tue, 9 Jan 1996 09:23:05 -0600
On Sun, 7 Jan 1996, RICHARD ROBBINS wrote:
> Could anyone recommend a good source on trade networks and markets in the
There is a wealth of information on the Hopewell trade and its centers.
There are also numerous studies of Aztec and Inca trade throughout the
Americas that are worth looking into.
Some unpublished observations that you will probably not find in the
literature:
Beginning in the latter 1200's C.E., there was a network
operating across the southern plains that apparently connected the
Southwest with the Southeast. This ran through the farming hamlets and
villages along the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle, then followed
the Washita River across western Oklahoma, and then (possibly) ducked
back onto the Canadian River in the east. The major items that were
moving included marine shell and some (very few) pottery vessels and
lithics from the SE culture area and obsidian, turquoise, and Olivella
shells from the SW and California. Timothy G. Baugh published a paper on
the Edwards site in Oklahoma that addressed this in part some years ago.
You might also want to check on the 1950's articles by J. Charles Kelly
on Juan Sabeata in Central Texas -- these were published in American
Anthr. in 1953 and 1955 I think. Sabeata and his band of Jumanos Indians
regularly made the trade contacts from the El Paso Pueblos/Missions up to
Pecos and then over to the Caddo country of East Texas, roughly along one
side of the area I mentioned about the prehistoric distributions.
All of this is (some day) going to turn into a paper, but it's about 47th
on my list right now.
David T. Hughes
Dept. of Anthropology
Wichita State University
Wichita, KS
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