Hunter-gatherers living in large, sedentary communities. Economy focused on marine resources including mammals, fish, and shellfish. Long-distance exchange and complex political structures present. Sedentary or semi-sedentary horticulturalists of the coastal and desert regions of northwestern Mexico. Reliance on domesticates increases during this tradition, as does sedentism.
Sedentary village horticulturalists with a simple, decentralized political organization.
Sedentary horticulturalists living in villages and small cities. Political centralization increases during the period. Lack chipped stone projectile points. Sedentary horticulturalists and fishers living in politically centralized societies with ranking or stratification. Sedentary irrigation and terracing agriculturalists, living in large communities.