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BERNARD L. FONTANA
ments was more detailed. There was more leisure time among these Pimas
and Sobaipuris with a consequently greater number of part-time specialists
at certain trades and a greater production of goods. Permanent streams
also afforded the main routes of travel through the Sonoran Desert, and
villages along the way were more likely to be centers of trade and commerce than villages elsewhere. Greater wealth resulting from all this was
reflected in more and fancier clothing—including that of locally grown cotton—and in turquoise and shell ornaments.
The riverine peoples were decidedly the aristocrats among the Pimans.
"The character of these Indians," wrote a Spanish missionary ". . . is
haughty and proud, a fact which can be recognized in the manner in which
they talk—with little esteem—about those Indians of the west. These western Indians [Papagos], either because of being less haughty or because
of some other motive, consider them superior and look up to them with
special respect" (Manje, 1954, p. 242).
IV. Conclusions
The important lesson to be learned from glimpsing the role of aboriginal
Piman Indians in the Sonoran Desert is not a new one. It is, however,
one that needs ever to be reiterated. It is simply that man is part of the
living fauna, and as such he interacts with other fauna, with plants, with
climate, and with physiography in ways that are indispensable to his life.
So interconnected are Homo sapiens and his environment, indeed, that
whether one begins with rainfall, rabbits, or mountain gradient to tell the
story, the choice is purely arbitrary.
Nor is the Piman case a study in environmental determinism. There were
food taboos imposed by cultural traditions rather than by edibility of certain plants and animals; resources available in life zones above the Upper
Sonoran were not exploited; and there is nothing in the riverine and central
Pimeria habitat which indicates that Homo sapiens has to farm. Indeed,
the riverine peoples could just as well have been comparatively wealthy
hunters and gatherers had they chosen.
The fact is, however, that the pre-Hispanic period Piman Indians of
the Sonoran Desert, using tools which could be fashioned from regional
subenvironments within the desert, worked their habitat to the limits of
the technology thus provided. For example, once given the tradition of
living in the Lower Colorado Valley—whatever the first reasons may have
been—Pimans utilizing this ecological niche were of necessity nomadic
wanderers. The lack of surface water made farming and fixed habitations
an impossibility.
BERNARD L. FONTANA
ments was more detailed. There was more leisure time among these Pimas
and Sobaipuris with a consequently greater number of part-time specialists
at certain trades and a greater production of goods. Permanent streams
also afforded the main routes of travel through the Sonoran Desert, and
villages along the way were more likely to be centers of trade and commerce than villages elsewhere. Greater wealth resulting from all this was
reflected in more and fancier clothing—including that of locally grown cotton—and in turquoise and shell ornaments.
The riverine peoples were decidedly the aristocrats among the Pimans.
"The character of these Indians," wrote a Spanish missionary ". . . is
haughty and proud, a fact which can be recognized in the manner in which
they talk—with little esteem—about those Indians of the west. These western Indians [Papagos], either because of being less haughty or because
of some other motive, consider them superior and look up to them with
special respect" (Manje, 1954, p. 242).
IV. Conclusions
The important lesson to be learned from glimpsing the role of aboriginal
Piman Indians in the Sonoran Desert is not a new one. It is, however,
one that needs ever to be reiterated. It is simply that man is part of the
living fauna, and as such he interacts with other fauna, with plants, with
climate, and with physiography in ways that are indispensable to his life.
So interconnected are Homo sapiens and his environment, indeed, that
whether one begins with rainfall, rabbits, or mountain gradient to tell the
story, the choice is purely arbitrary.
Nor is the Piman case a study in environmental determinism. There were
food taboos imposed by cultural traditions rather than by edibility of certain plants and animals; resources available in life zones above the Upper
Sonoran were not exploited; and there is nothing in the riverine and central
Pimeria habitat which indicates that Homo sapiens has to farm. Indeed,
the riverine peoples could just as well have been comparatively wealthy
hunters and gatherers had they chosen.
The fact is, however, that the pre-Hispanic period Piman Indians of
the Sonoran Desert, using tools which could be fashioned from regional
subenvironments within the desert, worked their habitat to the limits of
the technology thus provided. For example, once given the tradition of
living in the Lower Colorado Valley—whatever the first reasons may have
been—Pimans utilizing this ecological niche were of necessity nomadic
wanderers. The lack of surface water made farming and fixed habitations
an impossibility.