Ethnohistoric evidence for the economic role of cotton in the protohistoric Southwest

Abstract

This study examines the Spanish ethnohistoric evidence for the economic role of cotton in the Southwest at the time of contact, doing so within an integrated framework for economic behavior. Critical evaluation of the text and the organization of individual references to cotton by production, distribution, and consumption reveal the limited nature of this line of evidence; however, systematic comparison of the information it does yield shows that the Spanish documentary record does not support archaeological inferences of complex economic behavior with regard to cotton. Rather, the text suggests patterns that are more characteristic of a trading partner system. A comparison of this evidence with the archaeological record would shed additional light on this question.