ABSTRACT
The timing of the arrival and earliest use of maize in the Southwest is summarized using radiocarbon dates from early maize samples. A Precipitation Threshold for Forager-Farmers, established at the mean local precipitation level, is proposed as a critical point below which mobile Archaic period forager-farmers altered their subsistence behavior and, in some instances, adopted or intensified their use of maize and other domesticates. Research findings support the idea that Archaic forager-farmers responded to drought-induced changes in food supply by altering the relative dietary contributions of wild seeds and cultivated domesticates. It is also argued that this subsistence strategy underwrote the early adoption of maize and the early development of mixed-economy communities in various parts of New Mexico and beyond.