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Zooarchaeology has occupied a peculiar place within the archaeology of the American Southwest. While archaeologists with an interest in animal bone have worked here from the nineteenth century onward, and the presence of taxa such as macaws, domestic dogs, and domestic turkeys as well as taxa more commonly used in subsistence in southwestern zooarchaeological assemblages is of interest to archaeologists outside the Southwest as well as within it, the southwestern record has not figured prominently within the history of North American zooarchaeology. In the hopes of increasing the reach of southwestern zooarchaeology, this special issue presents three papers, each reflecting a potential new direction in southwestern zooarchaeology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyzes the Hopi yellow ware design system in terms of the plane pattern symmetries that structure the designs. This analysis reveals that the advent of the yellow wares correlates with the aggregation of farming villages into large pueblos in response to the thirteenth-century drought. Coincident with this settlement change is a shift from geometric designs organized by bifold rotation that metaphorically represent the reciprocities central to the corn lifeway to quasi-representational images organized by a number of different symmetries, some new to the region. Oral tradition indicates that Hopi villages are composed of many different groups of people, each with their own rituals and living practices. This paper suggests that the new symmetries and images not only mark the arrival of these in-migrating groups to Hopi villages but also the development of new social institutions to organize these larger communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aurelio Espinosa (1880-1958) studied folklore in the American Southwest and Spain. Espinosa was one of the first academic folklorists to work with American materials and the first scholar to write about Mexican American culture. This paper is an attempt to re-insert this forgotten figure into the history of folklore studies. At the same time, drawing on new archival sources, this study will show that Espinosa's active support of Franco in Spain contributed to his theory of cultural transmission in the American Southwest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various topics related to the field of Southwestern U.S. history. It presents a call for papers for the 117th Annual Meeting of the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), to be held in Fort Worth, Texas, from February 28 to March 2, 2013. The author announces that the 2012 annual convention of the North American Society of Oceanic Historians (NASOH) will take place at the Tremont Hotel in Galveston, Texas from April 22 to April 26, 2012. The article also lists individuals who have become members of the TSHA, including Susan Edwards, Carol Sayle, and Levi Goode.

The conservation of earthen sites poses challenging questions regarding conservation methods and historic preservation. The National Park Service and other site managers have to strike a balance between conserving the sites while presenting them to the public: there is no ideal choice. It is impossible to prevent a ruin from continuing to deteriorate without changing its appearance or its status as a ruin. Therefore, the conservation of historic earthen ruins should perhaps be more appropriately thought of as a process which slows the pace of decay, rather than suspending or preventing it. This paper looks at over one hundred years (from 1889 to the present) of site conservation at a variety of earthen historic and archaeological sites in the American Southwest. In each case, the National Park Service manages and treats the earthen ruins. The main categories of conservation techniques, and the preservation questions that these techniques raise, are examined along with their advantages and disadvantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper describes the estimated prevalence of dental caries and periodontal disease in 2,550 children, 5 through 17 years of age, who resided in five southwestern states of the United States and were examined in the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES) of 1982-84 of the National Center tot Health Statistics. Dental caries in the Mexican American children was predominantly a disease of occlusal surfaces of molars: few smooth surfaces of posterior and anterior teeth were affected by caries. This intra-oral distribution of dental caries strongly supports the use of fissure sealants as a preventive procedure. Filled tooth surfaces contributed about 66 per ¢ of the total DMFS (decayed, missing, filled surfaces) scores. The analysis also shows that about 50 per ¢ of the 17 year old Mexican Americans had five or more filled or decayed teeth. Mild gingivitis was prevalent (76.9 per ¢) in the Mexican American children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]