Diachronic patterns of change in the femoral diaphysis are examined in archaeological skeletal samples from the American Southwest. Three cultural periods differing in subsistence-settlement strategies are represented: Early Villages (A.D. 500-1150), Abandonments (A.D. 1150-1300), and Aggregated Villages (A.D. 1300-1540). Relevant properties of cross-sectional geometry and bone density were obtained using computerized tomography. Temporal trends in geometry suggest that activity levels increased between Early Villages and Abandonments, then declined during Aggregated Villages. In both sexes, femoral shape became more circular, and bending stresses were reduced in the a-p plane through time. Compared to the other periods, bone density was the lowest during Abandonments in both sexes. The reduction in bone density may reflect declining nutritional quality through time that was especially poor during the Abandonments period. Patternings in sexual dimorphism suggest that Abandonments males may have been more sensitive to nutritional stress than contemporary females.

Failure to distinguish clearly between human behavior and cultural behavior, as well as inattention to procedures for evaluating inferences about the past, undermine some recent efforts in archaeological interpretation. Examples from the archaeological literature of the American Southwest show how analytical confusion may arise when research strategies obscure cultural variability. We are especially concerned about instances in which archaeologists assume that variability in archaeological assemblages derives primarily or exclusively from variability in human behavior (rather than cultural behavior) or from noncultural processes that are instrumental in forming the archaeological record. Suggestions for modifying research strategies to avoid these problems are offered.

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