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Aridoamerica is a cultural region spanning the northern and central regions of Mexico and small parts of the Southwest United States,〔Pratt and Nabhan 419〕 in contrast to Mesoamerica,〔Cordell and Fowler 85〕 which lies to the south and east, and Oasisamerica to the north. These cultural regions overlap each other.〔 Unlike Mesoamerica, Aridoamerica has a dry, arid climate and geography. Because of the hard conditions, the precolumbian people in this region had cultures and subsistence patterns distinct from their Mesoamerican neighbors. The region of has only 120–160 centimeters annual precipitation. The sparse rainfall feeds seasonal creeks and waterholes.〔Bye and Linares 273〕 ==Subsistence== The Chichimeca, an umbrella term for several tribes used by the Nahua people, were hunter-gatherers in Aridoamerica grasslands. They gathered magueys, yucca flowers, mesquite beans, chia seeds, and cacti, including the paddles of fruits of nopal cactus. The century plant (''Agave americana'') is a particularly important resource in the region.〔Bye and Linares 256〕 Despite dry conditions, Aridoamerica boasts the greatest diversity of wild and domesticated tepary beans (''Phaseolus acutifolius'') and is a possible site of their domestication.〔 The cultivation of maize reached Aridoamerica by about 2100 BCE. Archaeologists disagree whether the plant was introduced by Uto-Aztecan migrants from Mesoamerica or spread either northward or southward from other groups by cultural borrowing.〔Herr, Sara A. "The Latest Research on the Earliest Farmers." ''Archaeology Southwest'' Vol. 23, No. 1, Winter 2009, p.1〕 In Baja California, fishing and hunting provided food, as did harvesting acorns, nopal, pine nuts, and other native plants. Historically, willow was coppiced, that is, tree trunks were cut to a stump to encourage the growth of slender shoots. These willow shoots were woven tightly to produce waterproof, cooking baskets. Fired-heated rocks were plunged into a gruel in the baskets to cook.〔Bye and Linares 273〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Aridoamerica」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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