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Climate of rebellion: The relationship between climate variability and indigenous uprisings in mid-eighteenth-century Sonora Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Brenneman, Dale Susan, 1956- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 05/10/2021 13:58:51 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/266813 CLIMATE OF REBELLION: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CLIMATE VARIABILITY AND INDIGENOUS UPRISINGS IN MID-EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SONORA by Dale Susan Brenneman Copyright © Dale Susan Brenneman 2004 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2004 UMI Number: 3145048 Copyright 2004 by Brenneman, Dale Susan All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 3145048 Copyright 2004 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 2 The University of Arizona ® Graduate College As members of the Final Examination Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Dale Susan Brenneman entitled Climate of Rebellion; The Relationship between Climate Variability and Indigenous Uprisings in Mid-Elghteenth-Century Sonora and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Jferson Reid / k^nvu^ f ^ i-do-oH Thomas E. Sheridan ^ date Teresita Majewskl ^ate s/f /o*, frw S. Dean date date Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. Dissertation Director:/Vy/jdffierson Reid date 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people and organizations contributed financial, institutional, and intellectual support to this project. I am extremely grateful to the Office of Ethnohistorical Research (OER, formerly Documentary Relations of the Southwest) at the Arizona State Museum, and to the Southwestern Mission Research Center (SMRC); while providing me with many years of congenial employment, they have given me valuable experience, facilitated my research, and kept me current with relevant literature. The Southwestern Foundation for Education and Historical Preservation, the J. W. Kieckhefer Foundation, and the Margaret T. Morris Foundation provided funding to OER for the "Ecological Change in the Greater Southwest" pilot project that got me underway. All scholarly achievements build on the work of others. I am especially grateful to David M. Meko of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, who generously allowed me use of data fi"om the latewood-width chronologies he and Christopher H. Baisan have developed for the watershed of the San Pedro River (the interpretations I have drawn from the data are entirely my own). Many thanks are due also to David A. Gregory, of the Center for Desert Archaeology, and Fred L. Nials, for providing me with a draft copy of the paper they have coauthored with Donald A. Graybill and Gary S. Funkhouser on streamflow reconstructions for the Salt and Gila Rivers; to Jonathan B. Mabry, of Desert Archaeology, hic., for supplying me with a copy of his draft report on early southwestern farming systems; to fellow graduate student J. Mark Kaib, who gave me a copy of his Master's thesis on fire history in the international Four Comers region; and to W. Bruce Masse, who supplied me with information regarding solstices and comets during the 1720s-1740s. Y mil gracias tambien a Emiliano Gallaga for drafting the maps. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the members of my doctoral committee—^my co- chairs, Dr. J. Jefferson Reid and Dr. Thomas E. Sheridan, and other committee members. Dr. Jeffrey S. Dean and Dr. Teresita Majewski—for their valuable suggestions, guidance, and encouragement. Each has stimulated my thinking about archaeology, ethnohistory, historical methodology, and/or paleoclimatic research in some way, and has contributed to the final direction of this work. Discussions with David Gregory inspired my path of inquiry, and I have benefited from the suggestions and support of many other fnends and colleagues; Michael Bartlett, Bamey Bums, Timothy Finan, Diana Hadley, Mark Kaib, Brace Masse, David Meko, Fred Nials, Linda Pierce, Catherine Sarther, David Stable, Thomas Swetnam, and David Yetman, in addition to the "ABD Writers Group"—Hortensia Caballero, Beth Kangas, Laura Mazow, Jacqueline Messing, Janneli Miller, Gillian Newell, Diane Riskedahl, Marcy Rockman, Kerry Sagabiel, and Becky Waugh. Many thanks to all! Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to my family for their encouragement, patience, and understanding—especially to my husband, Arthur Yokes, who has seen me through all the rough parts, yet still smiles. 5 DEDICATION To my husband, Arthur 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES 10 LIST OF TABLES 11 ABSTRACT 12 1. INTRODUCTION 14 Previous Research 18 Approaching the Ecology of Rebellion 23 Anthropological Approaches to Environmental Change and Human Responses 24 Climatic Variability and Human Vulnerability 26 Cultural Responses to Climate Variation 27 Famine and Rebellion 29 Resistance by Subordinate Classes 30 A Study in the Ecology of Rebellion 32 2. METHODS 34 Sources of Data 36 Paleoclimatic Reconstructions 36 Limitations and Interpretive Problems 39 Ethnohistorical Evidence 41 Methodological Considerations 44 Limitations 47 Ethnographic Evidence 47 Limitations 48 Archaeological Evidence 48 Limitations 49 3. ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING 51 Environmental Parameters 51 Precipitation 53 Temperatures 57 Drainage 58 Rio Yaqui Watershed 58 Rio Sonora Watershed 60 Rio Concepcion Watershed 60 Rio Matape 61 Nature of Intermittent Rivers 61 Arroyos 62 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS - Continued Agricultural Soils 63 Floodplains 63 Bajadas 64 Vegetation and Wildlife 65 Sonoran Desert Vegetation 65 Serrana Vegetation 71 Wetland Vegetation 76 Animals 79 Climatic Variability and Ecological Responses 84 Sources of Climatic Variability 85 Climate Patterning Prior to and During the Study Period 88 Ecological Responses 93 Streamflow 94 Biota 99 Notes to Chapter 3 102 4. INDIGENOUS SUBSISTENCE AT SPANISH CONTACT 103 Agriculture 104 Agricultural Ecosystems: Water Needs, Fields, Labor, and Productivity 104 Canal Irrigation 107 Floodwater Agriculture 110 Flood recession farming 110 Seasonal flood farming 112 Water Harvesting 113 Adapting Agricultural Systems 115 Crops and Cropping Practices 117 Maize, Beans, and Squash 118 Cotton 121 Other Seeds 122 Wild Resources 125 Food Plants 126 Mesquite 129 Agaves 131 Cactus Fruits 132 Game Animals 134 Implications of Agriculture for Wild Resource Availability 138 Subsistence Patterns by Ecological Zone 139 Serrana 142 Desert 146 Rio Yaqui Delta 157 Indigenous Responses to Climatic Variability 159 Notes to Chapter 4 163 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS - Continued 5. INDIGENOUS SUBSISTENCE WITHIN THE SPANISH COLONIAL REALM...165 Policies and Institutions of Spanish Colonization 166 The Lure of Souls: Missions 168 The Jesuit Mission Program 173 The Lure of Silver: Mining 176 Mining as an Enterprise 179 The Lure of the Land: Ranching and Agriculture 182 Stock Ranching 182 Agriculture 185 Frontier Security: Presidios and Militias 185 The Presidio 188 The Toll of Disease 189 Disease Agents 191 The Spread of Disease in Sonora 193 The Relationship between Mission and State 196 The Independent Nature of Jesuit Administration 197 The Structure of Civil Administration 199 Arenas of Conflict 200 Summary 203 Changes in the Organization of Indigenous Subsistence 205 Indigenous Subsistence within the Mission Regime 206 Environmental Impact of Spanish Colonization 211 Responses to Climatic Variability 212 Notes to Chapter 5 217 6. CLIMATE OF REBELLION 218 Escalation of Colonial Pressures 220 Spanish Mining, Agrarian, and MiUtary Developments 220 Missions 225 Indigenous Resistance to Colonial