Archaeologists are increasingly moving past discussions of whether migration events occurred in the past to more nuanced discussions of the meaning surrounding the migrants’ belongings. Migrants used material culture as powerful memory objects, to create meaning and adapt to living in a new place and often with new people. There are relatively few archaeological examples of large-scale migration into the Great Plains in the wake of European invasion of North America. One exception to this is the migration of Puebloan peoples from northern New Mexico to the Central Great Plains during the Puebloan diaspora after 1600 CE. Sites attributed to this migration are discussed in context with recent work on meaning and materiality to reconsider the critical role that objects play in identity expression and cultural survival in new homelands.

考古学家越来越多地将过去是否发生过移民事件的讨论转移到围绕移民财产含义的更细微的讨论上。移民将物质文化用作强大的记忆对象，以创造意义并适应生活在新地方并经常与新人们在一起的情况。欧洲入侵北美后，大规模迁徙到大平原的考古实例相对较少。一个例外是公元1600年后的普韦布洛族散居期间，普韦布洛族从新墨西哥州北部迁移到中部大平原。在最近关于意义和实质的工作的背景下，对归因于这种迁徙的遗址进行了讨论，以重新考虑物体在新家园中的身份表达和文化生存中所起的关键作用。