In the 1600's when the Spanish moved into what later was to become the southwestern United States, they encountered the ancestors of the modern-day Pueblo, Hopi, and Zuni peoples. These ancestors, known variously as the Basket Makers, the Anasazi, or the Ancient Ones, had lived in the area for at least 2,000 years. They were an advanced agricultural people who used irrigation to help grow their crops.

            The Anasazi lived in houses constructed of adobe and wood. Anasazi houses were originally built in pits and were entered from the roof. But around the year 700 A.D., the Anasazi began to build their homes above ground and join them together into rambling multistoried complexes, which the Spanish called pueblos or villages. Separate subterranean rooms in these pueblos – known as kivas or chapels – were  set aside for religious ceremonials. Each kiva had a fire pit and a hole that was believed to lead to the underworld. The largest pueblos had five stories and more than 800 rooms.

             The Anasazi family was matrilinear, that is, descent was traced through the female. The sacred objects of the family were under the control of the oldest female, but the ritual ceremonies were conducted by her brother or son. Women owned the rooms in the pueblo and the crops, once they were harvested. While still growing, crops belonged to the man who, in contrast to most other Native American groups, planted them. The women made baskets and pottery, the men wove textile and crafted turpoise jewelry.

              Each village had two chiefs. The village chief dealt with land disputes and religious affairs. The war chief led the men in fighting during occasional conflicts that broke out with neighboring villages and directed the men in community building projects. The cohesive political and social organization of the Anasazi made it almost impossible for other groups to conquer them.

  Barbed wire, first patented in the United States in 1867, played an important part in the development of American farming, as it enabled the settlers to make effective fencing to enclose their land and keep cattle away from their crops. This had a considerable effect on cattle ranching, since the herds no longer had unrestricted use of the plans for grazing, and the fencing led to conflict between the farmers and the cattle ranchers.

  Before barbed wire came into general use, fencing was often made from serrated wire, which was unsatisfactory because it broke easily when under strain, and could snap in cold weather due to contraction. The first practical machine for producing barbed wire was invented in 1874 by an Illinois farmer, and between then and the end of the century about 400 types of barbed wire were devised, of which only about a dozen were ever put to practical use.

  Modern barbed wire is made from mild steel high-tensile steel, or aluminum. Mild steel and aluminum barbed wire have two strands twisted together to form a cable which is stronger than single-strand wire and less affected by temperature changes. Single-strand wire, round or oval, is made from high-tensile steel with the barbs crimped or welded on . The steel wires used are galvanized - coated with zinc to make them rustproof. The two wires that make up the line wire or cable are fed separately into a machine at one end. They leave it at the other end twisted-together and barbed. The wire to make the barbs is fed into the machine from the sides and cut to length by knives that cut diagonally through the wire to produce a sharp point. This process continues automatically, and the finished barbed wire is wound onto reels, usually made of wire in length of 400 meters or in weights of up to 50 kilograms.

  A variation of barbed wire is also used for military purposes. It is formed into long cojis or entanglements called concertina wire.