All human behavior is patterned. We act in patterned ways because doing so helps us fulfill the material needs and desires of life, or because we are acting in concert with cultural expectations or beliefs about the world in which we live. Two objectives of modern archaeology are to recognize these patterns initially, and then to find meaning in them. Because archaeology is necessarily tied to the land and its resources, there is a tendency to overemphasize human-environmental interactions at the expense of a broader understanding of the nonmaterial factors that contribute to the creation of the archaeological record. In areas of relative resource abundance, environmental-functionalist approaches often leave us with conflicting explanations for essentially the same behaviors. This is especially true in studies of prehistoric hunters and gatherers where material remains are few. Combining elements of environmental functionalism, regional analysis, and practice theory, I examine archaeological data for evidence not of patterned behaviors only, but of patterned behaviors suggestive of the practices, beliefs, and worldviews of the people who produced them. By examining such data against the backdrop of the geographic region or regions within which patterned behaviors were generated, I demonstrate how the patterns form around centralizing mechanisms - resources, objects or people that attract people to certain places at specific times for specific reasons. Plotting centralizing mechanisms in relation to archaeological sites allows me to examine human functional regions, or regions that exist because of repeated visits, whether economically or socially motivated, to those centralizing mechanisms. Plotting all the functional regions for a given period reveals a behavioral region. A behavioral region is a spatial reflection of the patterned behaviors of a group of people. Its shape, extent, and orientation are indicators of how far people will travel or otherwise project their social relations in order to meet the material and social needs of their lives. A behavioral region has a significant historical basis; it is a reflection of the perceptions, beliefs, practices, and interactions of the people whose behaviors create it.

Using archaeological data from several drainages in New Mexico's Park Plateau, I introduce the behavioral regions approach, a model intended to address issues not only of settlement and subsistence, but also of cultural ties, affiliations, and interactions. As with any model, its utility would be more apparent when applied in the context of a more complex society with a richer material record. However, even in the case of a marginal hunting and gathering society with a limited material record, I am able to infer that the Plateau phase inhabitants (A.D. 300-800) of the Poñil drainage on the southern Park Plateau had enduring ties to people and practices of the Southwest, and that their patterned behaviors and practices at the regional level are indicative of those ties.