World Prehistory: Supplement to Class 15

ã Copyright Bruce Owen 2000

• Notes from Cordell and Gummerman 1989, Dynamics of Southwestern Prehistory
• with some additional info and opinions from other sources
• Social hierarchies throughout the Southwest were relatively simple and "modular"
• debate about how simple vs. stratified
• but clearly nowhere near as stratified as in Mesopotamia or other Old World cases
• "lack of obvious economic stratification" p. 5
• reflecting an environment with low productivity
• Fluctuating environmental productivity apparently was a major factor in culture history
• Dating can be tightly controlled by dendrochronology
• except that buildings were often built with logs cut decades, even over a century, before the contstruction
• and they lasted and were used for centuries after being built
• General Southwest regional chronology
• up to 200/500 AD: Archaic period
• 200/500 to 750/800 AD: Initiation period
• 770/.800 to 1000/1050 AD: Expansion period
• 1000/1050 to 1130/1150 AD: Differentiation period
• 1130/1150 to 1275/1300 AD: Reorganization period
• 1275/1300 to 1540 AD: Aggregation period
• Generally seen as periods of relatively stable patterns, with relatively rapid shifts from one stable pattern to the next
• Period names refer to the change that initiated the period, during the time range given as the first pair of dates
• These periods of rapid change seem to correspond to periods of marked climate change
• especially changing groundwater levels
• and surface water flow
• as shown by aggradation or erosion
• (surface water flow naturally reflects groundwater level)
• also more subtle climate changes measured from tree rings
• for example, the amount of variability from year to year
• or the amount of variability from place to place
• up to 200/500 AD: Archaic period
• mobile foragers with minor use of crops
• 200/500 to 750/800 AD: Initiation period
• the change at the beginning:
• shift from mobile foraging to more settled adaptation
• with greater dependence on crops
• probably involving storage
• the material culture developed for this settled lifestyle was the beginning of the specifically southwestern tradition
• pithouses (common in early neolithic cultures worldwide; why?)
• plain grey to brown pottery
• the suggested explanation
• the change occurred during a period in which water tables fell and surface water flow decreased
• so maybe farming and storing crops was a response to reductions in wild food available to foragers
• or to less dependable wild food supplies
• since the total, average productivity is down, the bad years might dip below the basic needs of the population
• throughout this period, the water tables and surface water gradually rose to their previous high levels
• 770/.800 to 1000/1050 AD: Expansion period
• the change at the beginning:
• the general southwestern tradition differentiated into major subgroups: Hohokam, Mogollon, and Anasazi
• Hohokam
• Hohokam pottery style
• platform mounds became more formalized
• they had first appeared late in the previous period
• ballcourts appeared and proliferated during this period
• shift from small, locally variable hamlets to larger areas of similar settlements
• Mogollon
• Mogollon pottery style
• continued living in pithouses
• Anasazi
• Anasazi pottery style
• began building above-ground rooms for storage
• still living in pithouses initially, but started living in above-ground room complexes during this period
• population density rose in some areas
• people with the general southwestern material culture tradition settled in a larger region (hence "expansion period")
• the suggested explanation
• the initial change occurred at the fairly abrupt beginning of a period of lower water tables and reduced surface water flow
• and increased variability from year to year
• in this case, the average water levels stayed down throughout the whole period
• maybe people were moving around, experimenting in search of reliable farming locations and methods?
• if so, maybe the greater number of sites just reflects many places that were only occupied briefly, rather than population growth
• Ceramic variability might be a way of people marking their ethnic alliegence or identity when trading with members of other groups, as might be necessary if there were frequent food shortfalls
• Hohokam platform mounds might have been associated with rituals involving sharing or redistributing of food
• Anasazi above-ground architecture may have started with structures to store food not just for one season, but from good years for future use one or more years later
• 1000/1050 to 1130/1150 AD: Differentiation period
• the change at the beginning:
• in some areas, increasingly localized ceramic variation, often distinct from one little valley to the next
• in other areas, development of larger, more complex systems
• Chaco Canyon
• Hohokam "heartland"
• Casas Grandes a little later
• each of these systems had influence on settlements over a wide area, that presumably interacted or were united in some way
• increased exchange of ceramics within the system
• more exotic materials (turquoise, shell, pyrite, feathers, copper bells), more unequally distributed
• but compared to complex societies elsewhere...
• little economic or status stratification
• no signs of state-like organization
• little sign of centralized storage or redistribution
• the suggested explanation
• relatively high water tables, rainfall, surface water
• suggestion that in a period of relative plenty, a wide variety of different social arrangements were able to succeed ("virtually any economic strategy would work")
• 1130/1150 to 1275/1300 AD: Reorganization period
• the change at the beginning:
• instability and change in social arrangements
• some centers and areas abandoned, others founded or grew
• Chaco Canyon
• building ceased, although people still lived in the pueblos
• some other Anasazi areas were abandoned
• Mesa Verde and Yellow Jacket areas
• lots of building, presumably rise in populations
• Hohokam
• platform mounds stopped being used for ritual, and people built houses on them
• they stopped making ritual goods such as carved stone bowls, censors, and palettes
• but certain centers began specializing in ceramics (Salado style) that were widely traded
• suggesting some kind of change...
• the suggested explanation
• global warm period
• water tables dropped (although not to the historic extremes)
• some societies could not handle the reduced productivity, and the regions were partially or even fully abandoned
• the large centers such as Chaco lost their influence, presumably because the climate change left them poor
• others responded with a variety of changes, from ritual and political to economic
• people moved from lower, drier areas to higher, wetter ones, leading to the late Anasazi centers at Mesa Verde and elsewhere
• 1275/1300 to 1540 AD: Aggregation period
• the change at the beginning:
• the highland areas of the Colorado plateau were virtually abandoned
• Chaco Canyon
• Mesa Verde
• San Juan Basin (northeastern Anasazi)
• most of the western Anasazi area
• people in the lowland areas to the south shifted from smaller settlements into big pueblos of up to hundreds of rooms
• in some places, there were "focal pueblos" that were larger, and had more decorated ceramics and exotic goods, than the smaller pueblos around them
• it seems that these focal pueblos interacted with each other differently from the way they interacted with the neighboring smaller pueblos
• to what extent this reflects status differences, complex social organization, etc. is debated
• some seem defensible, but others were not
• the suggested explanation
• sharp, severe drop in water availability (the "Great Drought")
• Somewhere between 1400 and 1600 AD, most of the large settlements were abandoned, before European visitors reached the area
• did this happen before even indirect European contact?
• due to drought?
• due to problems in keeping large numbers of people satisfied in one town?
• did this happen as a result of European contact?
• diseases spreading ahead of actual visitors?
• after 1540 AD, European disruption was indisputable
• diseases
• new crops
• new domesticated animals
• trade, war, etc. with Europeans