Prehistoric Southwestern cultural divisions
Okay kiddo, do you know what "prehistoric" means? It's a time period before people had written records, so we have to use other clues to learn about it, like looking at things that they left behind.
Now, the southwestern part of what is now the United States is a big place with a lot of different kinds of environments. Some places are hot, dry deserts, some are cool mountains, and some are grassy plains. Each environment can be good for different kinds of plants and animals to live in, and that affects how people can live there too.
A long time ago, before we had cities, people in the Southwest figured out ways to live in each kind of environment. They learned how to grow different kinds of crops, or how to hunt and gather food in different ways. They also made different kinds of tools and houses based on what materials were available in each place.
Because these groups of people lived in different places and had different ways of life, they developed distinct cultural traditions. We call these cultural divisions, which means they are different groups with their own ways of doing things.
Some of these cultural divisions that we have learned about include the Hohokam, Ancestral Puebloans (sometimes called Anasazi), Mogollon, and Patayan. Each of these groups lived in different parts of the Southwest and had different ways of surviving and thriving. They also had different kinds of art, music, and stories that they passed down from one generation to the next.
Even though we don't know everything about what life was like for these people, we can learn a lot about their cultures by studying what they left behind. That's why archaeologists and historians work hard to preserve and study things like pottery, tools, and buildings from these prehistoric southwestern cultural divisions.
Now, the southwestern part of what is now the United States is a big place with a lot of different kinds of environments. Some places are hot, dry deserts, some are cool mountains, and some are grassy plains. Each environment can be good for different kinds of plants and animals to live in, and that affects how people can live there too.
A long time ago, before we had cities, people in the Southwest figured out ways to live in each kind of environment. They learned how to grow different kinds of crops, or how to hunt and gather food in different ways. They also made different kinds of tools and houses based on what materials were available in each place.
Because these groups of people lived in different places and had different ways of life, they developed distinct cultural traditions. We call these cultural divisions, which means they are different groups with their own ways of doing things.
Some of these cultural divisions that we have learned about include the Hohokam, Ancestral Puebloans (sometimes called Anasazi), Mogollon, and Patayan. Each of these groups lived in different parts of the Southwest and had different ways of surviving and thriving. They also had different kinds of art, music, and stories that they passed down from one generation to the next.
Even though we don't know everything about what life was like for these people, we can learn a lot about their cultures by studying what they left behind. That's why archaeologists and historians work hard to preserve and study things like pottery, tools, and buildings from these prehistoric southwestern cultural divisions.