NO. 1 CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN LATIN AMERICA 
7 
ramies of the North Ameriean southwest and the Mesoamerican 
middle culture **bay wares" in both manufacture and color if not in 
form, then northern Mexico may have received this inspiration at 
about the same time as did the northern fringes of the culture in the 
Mogollon mountain area of the southwest (fig. 2) . 
A significant innovation is the formation of small nuclear villages 
around the beginning of the Christian era. Soon thereafter, ceramic 
art traditions appeared and took on provincial techniques of a type 
that permit the ceramic student to categorize the subsequent cultural 
growth of the entire area in terms of ceramics. 
KIN-GROUP FORMATIVE VILLAGE FARMING COMMUNITIES 
BEARING PAINTED POTTERY (a.D. 500-900) 
This phase in the general history of northern Mexico is marked by 
(1) the appearance of decorated ceramics, (2) increased population 
as reflected in the growth pattern of settlements, (3) increasing pro- 
vincialism, and (4) a division of the indigenous population into farm- 
ers and nomads. Along the south-central border of the area, local set- 
tlements may have been influenced by the Chupicuaro Culture to the 
south in the Lerma River drainage. In the area of Durango-Zacate- 
cas, the Alta Vista Phase has come into clearer focus with Kelley's 
recent work on the Chalchihuites pattern. Elements of this culture 
have been found in restricted concentration in the Suchil and Graceros 
drainages, where both hilltop ceremonial centers and valley occupa- 
tion sites have been found to contain elements similar to the Chal- 
chihuites Culture of the Alta Vista Phase (Kelley, 1962). It is 
thought that sometime during this time component, elements of this 
culture found their way northward into Durango and Sinaloa (Kelley 
and Winters, 1960, pp. 549-551). In this southwest corner of north- 
ern Mexico, certain influences from Central America may have been 
moving up the Pacific coast through the Amapa Culture of Nayarit 
and hence into Sinaloa (Kelly, 1938, p. 43), including pottery drums, 
four-footed metates, and clay figures (Grosscup, 1961, pp. 404-405). 
Some of these influences may have traveled as far north as Snake- 
town in Arizona. 
Along the eastern section of this zone, the indigenes retained their 
old nomadic way of life. This apparently was true also of a great deal 
of the central and western section of northern Mexico. In Chihua- 
hua, culture was developing along lines similar to the more northerly 
Mogollon Culture. A broad-lined, and later a thin-lined, red-on-brown 
pottery associated with a great deal of brown textured wares were 
being made by village farmers who lived in pit houses. There is a 
