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The following hypothesis is proposed: that the distribution in time and space of Desert culture(s) and Hokaltecan languages imply a connection, that at one time there was a continuous band of Hokaltecan people practicing Desert culture from the Great Basin to the Texas and Tamaulipecan coasts, that this continuity was disrupted by an incursion of Utaztecan highlanders moving along the cordillera into Mexico, that proto-Shoshoneans entered the Great Basin from the northeast, that the Yuman peoples are a remnant block and not a disrupting wedge of Mexican origin, and that some of the similarities between cultures in California, the American Southwest, and Mexico are survivals of the basic proto-Utaztecan or Macro-Penutian culture, while still others are the result of interchange through a relatively homogeneous cultural medium made up of Utaztecan highlanders living along the western cordillera from central Mexico to the American Southwest.

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In a rejoinder to Taylor's review of his Tamaulipas monograph, MacNeish restated his method of analysis and reviewed the system he used to establish his phase sequence. Taylor claims that MacNeish has defended his position by introducing new data and by presenting a point of view not expressed in the original monograph. Taylor insists that MacNeish's reply only confirms his original criticism that the Tamaulipas sequence is built on the premise that one excavation unit equals one phase.

In 1913, Spinden published his monumental work on the artistic forms in Maya culture. Since that time, many of his statements have assumed axiomatic character in the literature and discussion of Maya archaeology. However, as was to be expected, new information has tended to modify some of the generalizations put forward in 1913. In the present paper, I would like to offer evidence to support the hypothesis that certain artistic compositions, treated separately by Spinden, actually are members of a single complex, and then to review some of his generalizations in the light of this evidence and Maya chronology.The complex which I propose to demonstrate consists of the Ceremonial Bar, the Bar Pendant, and the Frieze-mask. It is my thesis that the Bar Pendant is the conceptual equivalent of the Ceremonial Bar and, in actual practice, is substituted for the latter. Similarly, the Friezemask is conceptually connected with the Bar and, thus, directly or indirectly, with the Pendant.