Dec 12, 2024  
2024-2025 College Catalog 
    
2024-2025 College Catalog

ARC 205 - Introduction to Southwestern Prehistory

3 Credits, 3 Contact Hours
3 lecture periods 0 lab periods
Study of the prehistory of the American Southwest from its earliest inhabitants to European contact. Includes anthropology and its subfields, basics of archaeology, the Southwest, Paleoindians, archaic peoples; Hohokam, Mogollon, Anasazi, and other Southwestern cultures; and late prehistoric and historic cultural change.

Information: Same as AIS 205 /ANT 205 .
Gen-Ed: Meets AGEC - HUM or SBS and C; Meets CTE - A&H or SBS and C.



Button linking to AZ Transfer course equivalency guide  

Course Learning Outcomes
  1. Describe key concepts and terms in archaeology.
  2. Describe foraging cultures in the Southwest.
  3. Characterize and distinguish among settled village cultures in the Southwest.
  4. Discuss late-prehistoric cultural changes.

Performance Objectives:
  1. List the four subfields of anthropology.
  2. Define common archaeological terms, describe archaeological methods and discuss how archaeologists interpret the past.
  3. Describe the geography and resources of the Southwest.
  4. Explain current views on the arrival of Native ancestors in the New World in general and in the Southwest in particular.
  5. Describe foraging lifeways in the Paleoindian and Archaic cultures.
  6. Discuss the origins of farming and settled village life in the Southwest.
  7. Characterize settled farming cultures of the Hohokam, Mogollon, Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi), and other cultures.
  8. Discuss late prehistoric and historic cultural changes.

Outline:
  1. Anthropology and its Subfields
    1. Biological (physical) anthropology
    2. Cultural (Sociocultural) anthropology
    3. Linguistic anthropology
    4. Archaeology
  1. Basics of Archaeology
    1. Archaeological materials
    2. Finding and excavating archaeological sites
    3. Dating archaeological materials
    4. Interpreting archaeological evidence
  2. Geography and Resources of the Southwest
    1. Extent of the Southwest
    2. Environments and resources in the Southwest
  3. Peopling of the New World
    1. Origins and spread of New World Peoples
    2. Earliest peoples in the Southwest
  4. Paleoindian and Archaic foragers
    1. Paleoindian cultures and lifeways
    2. Archaic cultures and lifeways
    3. Origins of farming and settled village life
  5. Settled village farming cultures
    1. Hohokam
      1. Location and environment
      2. Characteristics of cultural phases and changes over time
      3. Relationship to modern Native groups
    2. Mogollon
      1. Location and environment
      2. Characteristics of cultural phases and changes over time
      3. Relationship to modern Native groups
    3. Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi)
      1. Location and environment
      2. Characteristics of cultural phases and changes over time
      3. Relationship to modern Native groups
    4. Other Prehistoric Cultures
      1. Location and environment
      2. Characteristics of cutlural phases and changes over time
      3. Relationships to modern Native groups
  6. Late Prehistoric and Historic Cultural Change
    1. Abandonments and population movements
    2. Arrival of Athabaskans
    3. Arrival and impacts of the Spanish


Effective Term:
Full Academic Year 2018/19