The Chichimec Sea is a metaphorical term for that large area of mountain, desert, and desiccated lake bed that covers much of northern Mexico and parts of the southwestern United States. Aboriginally- indeed, well into historic times- this large area was inhabited by diverse bands of Indians who had in common mainly the fact that they shared neither in the complex civilization of Mesoamerica nor the sub-Mesoamerican cultures of the Greater Southwest.

This comprehensive and unified volume of original essays deals with the complex problems of interaction- across and around the Chichimec Sea- between Mesoamerica and the Southwest. The twenty contributions to this volume, by anthropologists, archaeologists, geographers, ethnohistorians, and ethnobotanists, all deal with diverse aspects of the problem of Mesoamerican-Southwest contacts.