Mobile Agriculturalists and the Emergence of Sedentism: Perspectives from Northern Mexico

Abstract

A truism in anthropology is that hunters and gatherers are mobile and agriculturalists are sedentary. Factors affecting residential mobility are examined using data from a Rarámuri (Tarahumara) community of residentially mobile agriculturalists in northern Mexico who move among principal residences, growing‐season residences associated with distant fields, winter locations, and a ceremonial center. This case indicates that the unilineal model from mobile hunting and gathering to sedentary agriculture must be broadened and that economic factors alone do not totally determine settlement patterns. Explanatory models related to the causes of sedentism are considered.