796 nomadic and pastoral societies: The Americas no dramatic change in lifestyle practiced by pastoralists anywhere after the advent of Roman political domination The lone exception is found in the areas in which former troops were settled Some of those settled engaged in pastoral pursuits Beef consumption dropped noticeably with the demise of the empire The breakdown of trade networks and the lack of military consumption played roles in this shift The move to raising sheep and goats cut down on expenses as well as risk for farmers in a world that was making the transition to a more localized economy Pastoralism left its mark upon the Roman psyche The pastoral lifestyle became the idyllic antidote to the rancor and chaos of city life (as characterized by the Roman poet Horace in his Epodes, written in 30 b.c.e.) Beginning with Virgil’s Eclogues (42–37 b.c.e.), the Latin genre of pastoralism emerges The genre emphasizes rustic purity and innocence Virgil used his work to underscore political and social events occurring in the Roman world as well THE AMERICAS BY DAVID VALLILEE The term nomadism derives from the Greek word nomás, meaning “feed” or “pasture.” Generally, it has been defined as a circumstance in which people have no permanent home and wander in search of food for themselves and pasture for their animals It also applies to peoples whose subsistence is based largely on hunting migrating mammals, with the result that the location of their temporary shelters is determined by herd movements and a need to avoid excessive hunting in one place Nomadic pastoralism is a life that is based on herding domesticated animals and often requires moving the animals to the best pastures For example, pastures in arid regions may not be useful outside of the rainy season, while pastures in mountainous and colder regions may not be accessible in winter These conditions require that livestock be moved between different regions seasonally Nomadic pastoralists may travel to a wide variety of places according to the availability of pastureland, whereas transhumant pastoralists move between fi xed locations each season, typically between lowlands and mountains In a general sense, all the early inhabitants of the American continent during the Paleo-Indian Period (ca 13,000– 8000 b.c.e.) can be described as nomadic, with no fi xed year-round settlements and with livelihoods based on hunting and gathering that required frequent movement While scholarship of the Paleo-Indian Period previously focused on the hunting of now-extinct big game or megafauna, such as mastodons, mammoths, ground sloths, and saber-tooth tigers, scholars now agree that the Paleo-Indian hunters relied more heavily upon species of mammals that did not become extinct: bison, caribou, moose, elk, and ox The Archaic Period (ca 8000–1000 b.c.e.) in the Americas generally is viewed as a gradual period of transition from nomadic hunting and gathering societies to sedentary, ag- riculturally based societies Despite the introduction of agriculture, many cultures retained a hunting-and-gathering component in their diet For some a seminomadic existence based on seasonal movements that followed animal migrations continued throughout the period Toward the end of the Archaic Period small year-round settlements—and in rare cases large settlements, such as Poverty Point in Louisiana (ca 1600–1300 b.c.e.)—began to appear, and nomadism became less common In many of the mountainous regions of South America, parts of northern Mexico, and the Great Plains and Great Basin regions of North America, however, nomadic existence and reliance upon hunting remained central throughout the Archaic Period and later (until 500 c.e.) The Paleo-Indian Period in central Mexico was characterized by small nomadic families, or microbands, who moved their camps three or four times a year, hunting horses, antelope, and, occasionally, mammoths and other now-extinct species of megafauna They also hunted smaller game: rabbits, turtles, birds, gophers, rats, and other small mammals Extensive archaeological study of the Tehuacán Valley (in the state of Puebla, Mexico) has led to a number of conclusions about the Archaic Period in central Mexico One conclusion is that in the Tehuacán Valley (ca 8000–5000 b.c.e.) subsistence depended upon plant collecting, trapping of small mammals, and hunting of a variety of animals and birds The cultivation of maize (corn) first appeared in the region around 5000 b.c.e Beans, amaranth (a grain), chili peppers, plums, avocados, squashes, and gourds were also cultivated Between about 5000 and 2300 b.c.e agriculture gained an increasingly larger proportion of the Tehuacán Valley diet (25 percent), but hunting of mammals also continued Year-round occupation of hamlets began approximately between 3400 and 2300 b.c.e., after which nomadism for the Tehuacán Valley can be said to have ceased With the extinction of mammoths, prehistoric horses, and camelids in the Great Plains region during the early Archaic Period, a shift to bison hunting became ever more central to survival The tools of this period, particularly finely carved, razor-sharp spear points, were essential components for increasing the success of bison hunting Hunting parties drove herds of bison over cliffs, such as at the Head-SmashedIn bison jump in southern Alberta, Canada, and into canyons, ravines, and corrals (bowl-shaped rock formations), where large numbers of bison could be slaughtered quickly The settlement systems of the Archaic Plains Indians adhered to a flexible and mobile pattern with an emphasis on hunting bison augmented by hunting smaller animals (deer, raccoons, beavers, rabbits, squirrels, muskrats) Shelter typical of the period included open-air and rock-shelter field camps, and post-in-ground structures, while portable perishable shelter—presumably hide-covered tepees—were probably the most prominent After the Archaic Period, these patterns of subsistence continued The Archaic Period Desert culture (ca 9000–1000 b.c.e.) located in the Great Basin area was primarily a foraging so-