Arizona State Museum - Saved 5/14/2020

Gathering of wild agave for food and fiber is widely recognized in ethnographic accounts of Southwestern Indians. Historically documented cultivation is limited to small-scale plantings and has not established agave as a significant aboriginal cultigen. The apparent absence of agave as a cultivated staple among peoples of the Sonoran Desert contrasts with pre-Columbian and historic ubiquity of this crop further south. It is a major cultigen throughout the rest of highland Mexico, including areas in Durango and Zacatecas, often considered within the greater Southwestern cultural sphere. Current archaeological evidence suggests that agave figured more prominently in prehistoric Southwestern agriculture than in that of subsequent groups.

Fish, Suzanne K.; Fish, Paul R.; Miksicek, Charles; Madsen, John - Saved 5/14/2020

Gathering of wild agave for food and fiber is widely recognized in ethnographic accounts of Southwestern Indians. Historically documented cultivation is limited to small -scale plantings and has not established agave as a significant aboriginal cultigen. The apparent absence of agave as a cultivated staple among peoples of the Sonoran Desert contrasts with pre -Columbian and historic ubiquity of this crop further south. It is a major cultigen throughout the rest of highland Mexico, including areas in Durango and Zacatecas, often considered within the greater Southwestern cultural sphere. Current archaeological evidence suggests that agave figured more prominently in prehistoric Southwestern agriculture than in that of subsequent groups.