The Sino-Sonoran: Site and artifact variability of the Chinese in southern Arizona

Abstract

This thesis investigates the artifact quantity and variability of artifacts found in archaeological sites inhabited by Chinese in southern Arizona. In doing so, I seek to address the preferences of the early Chinese for different Chinese culture materials in different environmental settings. I also seek to examine the variability of artifact types across Chinese sites in Arizona. To effect this, I have researched all known sites with Chinese artifactual components in southern Arizona, and divided these sites into urban and rural groupings. I then compare the collected artifacts from all sites within these two groups in terms of both total numbers of items and in total numbers of different artifact types. As expected, artifact variability in rural sites is significantly lower than in rural sites, in accordance with the lower population and other possible factors. Rural sites also seem to contain higher percentages of food preparation and storage ceramics, and lower proportions of opium paraphernalia.