552 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1960 



1. Who were the earliest inhabitants of (he New World? Were 

 they food gatherers comparable in their simple subsistence technology 

 to the peoples of the Old World lower and middle Paleolithic ? 



2. Where and at what time did the American big-game-himting 

 specialization of the Pleistocene arise? "Wliat were its relationships 

 to the possible earlier food gatherers mentioned above? What were 

 its relationships to the big-game-hunting tradition of the Old World ? 

 What happened to the pattern ? 



3. "What were the origins and relationships of the specialized food- 

 collecting subsistence patterns of the post-Pleistocene? Did Asiatic 

 diffusions and migrations play a part in these developments, especially 

 in the Arctic and Boreal zones ? 



4. T\Tiere and when were food plants first domesticated in the New 

 World, and what was the effect of this on society and culture ? 



5. What is the history of pottery in the New World ? 



6. At what period and in what regions did sedentary village life 

 based upon farming arise in the New World, and what was the history 

 of the spread of this pattern in native America ? 



7. What was the nature of sedentary village life in the New World 

 in those areas or regions where plant cultivation was poorly developed 

 or lacking, and when did it occur? To what extent were such cultures 

 and societies dependent upon the diffusion of ideas and elements from 

 the village-farming pattern ? 



8. When and how did the native civilizations of Nuclear America 

 come into being? What were their relationships within the Nuclear 

 sphere ? What were their relationships to non-Nuclear America ? 



In the statement of these problems and in the discussion that fol- 

 lows, certain terminology is used that needs explanation. This 

 terminology also relates to the three diagrammatic charts (figs. 1-3) 

 which summarize New World prehistoiy in broad eras or stages of 

 subsistence teclmology (earlier clironological ranges) or settlement 

 types (later chronological ranges). The term food gathering is ap- 

 plied to subsistence patterns where the gathering of wild plant foods 

 or the hunting of animal life lacked regional specialization or tech- 

 nological diversification. This usage follows that of Braidwood in 

 Old World archeology [3]. Food collecting^ in contradistinction, 

 implies both specialization and diversification in the taking and utili- 

 zation of wild plant and animal foods. The other terms descriptive 

 of types of subsistence and settlement — incipient cultivation^ village 

 farming^ towns and tem,ples^ cities^ and a few other special terms of 

 this nature — are defined below. 



The geographical arrangements and the designations of the charts 

 deserve a word. Figure 1 is a cross section for an area that runs 

 north and south through the western axis of the hemisphere. Tlie 



