Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-75dct Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-20T17:37:29.427Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social Differentiation and Leadership Development in Early Pithouse Villages in the Mogollon Region of the American Southwest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Kent G. Lightfoot  and
Gary M. Feinman
Kent G. Lightfoot
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281
Gary M. Feinman
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines the development of social differentiation and simple decision-making organizations in the Mogollan region of the prehistoric American Southwest. We suggest that intensifying managerial problems associated with the transition to sedentism may have selected for suprahousehold sociopolitical organizations. Based on cross-cultural data, a set of theoretical expectations concerning social differentiation and leadership development is formulated which focuses on regularities in the regional settlement pattern and intrasettlement distribution of architectural features and material goods. These expectations are then used to generate a set of propositions which are evaluated archaeologically using data from early pithouse villages. On the basis of a test of these propositions it appears that simple suprahousehold decision-making organizations were present in the American Southwest by A.D. 600. The implications of this interpretation for understanding subsequent developments in Southwestern prehistoric sociopolitical organization are then discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , January 1982 , pp. 64 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Adams, Richard N. 1975 Energy and structure: a theory of social power. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Adams, Robert McC. 1966 The evolution of urban society. Aldine, Chicago.Google Scholar
Bailey, F. G. 1969 Strategems and spoils: a social anthropology of politics. Schocken Books, New York.Google Scholar
Balandier, Georges 1970 Political anthropology. Pantheon Books, New York.Google Scholar
Bean, Lowell J. 1976 Social organization in native California. In Native Californians: a theoretical retrospective, edited by Bean, L. J. and Blackburn, T. C., pp. 99–124. Ballena Press, Ramona, California.Google Scholar
Bean, Lowell J., and Harry, Lawton 1976 Some explanations for the rise of cultural complexity in native California with comments on protoagriculture and agriculture. In Native Californians: a theoretical retrospective, edited by Bean, L. J. and Blackburn, T. C., pp. 19–48. Ballena Press, Ramona, Calif.Google Scholar
Bender, Barbara 1978 Gatherer-hunter to farmer: a social perspective. World Archaeology 10:204–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berndt, Ronald M. and Peter, Lawrence (editors) 1971 Politics in New Guinea. University of Washington Press, Seattle.Google Scholar
Bettinger, Robert L., and King, T. F. 1971 Interaction and political organization: a theoretical framework for archaeology in Owens Valley, California. UCLA Archaeological Survey Annual Report 13.Google Scholar
Binford, Lewis R., and Chasko, W. J. Jr. 1976 Nunamiut demographic history: a provocative case. In Demographic anthropology: quantitative approaches, edited by Zubrow, E., pp. 63–143. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Birdsell, Joseph B. 1966 Some predictions for the Pleistocene based on equilibrium systems among recent hunter-gatherers. In Man the hunter, edited by Lee, R. and Devore, I., pp. 229–240. Aldine, Chicago.Google Scholar
Blalock, Hubert M. Jr. 1972 Social statistics (second ed.). McGraw Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Blanton, Richard 1975 The cybernetic analysis of human population growth. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology 30:116–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bluhm, Elaine A. 1960 MogoUon settlement patterns in Pine Lawn Valley, New Mexico. American Antiquity 25:538–546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradfield, Wesley 1931 Cameron Creek Village. El Palacio Press, Santa Fe. Brand, Donald D.Google Scholar
Bradfield, Wesley 1938 Aboriginal trade routes for sea shells in the Southwest. Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers 4:1–10.Google Scholar
Breternitz, David A. 1959 Excavations at Nantack Village, Point of Pines, Arizona. University of Arizona, Anthropological Papers 1.Google Scholar
Bronitsky, Gordon 1976 An ecological model of trade. Ms. on file, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Brookfield, H. C, and Brown, P. 1963 Struggle for land: agriculture and group territories among the Chimbu of the New Guinea Highlands. Oxford University Press, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Brown, Paula 1978 New Guinea: ecology, society and culture. Annual Review of Anthropology 7:263–292.Google Scholar
Bryan, B. 1927 The Galaz Ruin in the Mimbres Valley. El Palacio 23:323–337.Google Scholar
Bryan, B. 1931 Excavations of the Galaz Ruin. The Masterkey 4:179-189, 221–226.Google Scholar
Bullard, William Rotch Jr. 1962 The Cerro Colorado site and pithouse architecture in the Southwestern United States prior to A.D. 900. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Papers 44(2).Google Scholar
Callen, Jay S. 1976 Settlement patterns in pre-war Siwai: an application of central place theory to a horticultural society. Solomon Island Studies in Human Biogeography No. 5. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.Google Scholar
Chagnon, N. A. 1970 Ecological and adaptive aspects of California shell money. University of California, Los Angeles, Archaeological Survey Annual Report 12.Google Scholar
Clark, Geoffrey A. 1978 Review of Spatial analysis in archaeology, by Ian, Hodder and Clive, Orton. American Antiquity 43: 132–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Mark N. 1977 The food crisis in prehistory: overpopulation and the origins of agriculture. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Cohen, Ronald 1978 State origins: a reappraisal. In The early state, edited by Claessen, H. J. M. and Skalnik, P., pp. 31–75. Mouton, The Hague, Netherlands.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colton, Harold S. 1941 Prehistoric trade in the Southwest. Scientific Monthly 52:308–319.Google Scholar
Cook, S. F., and Robert F., Heizer 1965 The quantitative approach to the relation between population and settlement size. Reports of the University of California Archaeological Survey 64:1–97.Google Scholar
Cordell, Linda S., and Fred, Plog 1979 Escaping the confines of normative thought: a reevaluation of puebloan prehistory. American An- ‘ tiquity 44:405–429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cosgrove, H. S., and Cosgrove, C. B. 1932 The Swarts Ruin, a typical Mimbres site of southwestern New Mexico. Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Papers 15(1).Google Scholar
Cowgill, George L. 1975 Population pressure as a non-explanation. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology 30: 127–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dittert, A. E. Jr., Hester, J. J., and Eddy, F. W. 1961 An archaeological survey of the Navajo Reservoir District, northwestern New Mexico. Monographs of the School of American Research and the Museum of New Mexico 23.Google Scholar
Dumond, D. E. 1965 Population growth and cultural change. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 21:302–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earle, Timothy 1978 Economic and social organization of complex chiefdoms: the Halenea District, Kaua'i, Hawaii. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan Anthropological Papers 63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eddy, Frank W. 1966 Prehistory in the Navajo Reservoir District, northwestern New Mexico. Museum of New Mexico Papers in Anthropology 15, parts 1 and 2.Google Scholar
Flannery, Kent V. 1972 The cultural evolution of civilizations. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 3:399–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flannery, Kent V., and James, Schoenwetter 1970 Climate and man in formative Oaxaca. Archaeology 23:144–152.Google Scholar
Fried, Morton H. 1967 The evolution of political society: an essay in political anthropology. Random House, New York.Google Scholar
Goody, Jack 1972 The evolution of the family. In Household and family in past time, edited by Laslett, P. and Wall, R., pp. 103–124. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gumerman, George 1966 Two Basketmaker II pithouse villages in eastern Arizona: a preliminary report. Plateau 39:80–87.Google Scholar
Harding, Thomas G. 1970 Trading in northeast New Guinea. In Cultures of the Pacific: selected readings, edited by Harding, T. G. and Wallace, B. J., pp. 94–111. Free Press, New York.Google Scholar
Harner, Michael J. 1975 Scarcity, the factors of production and social evolution. In Population, ecology and social evolution, edited by Polgar, S., pp. 123–138. Mouton, The Hague, Netherlands.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hassan, Fekri A. 1975 Determination of the size, density and growth rate of hunting-gathering populations. In Population, ecology and social evolution, edited by Polgar, S., pp. 27–52. Mouton, The Hague, Netherlands.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haury, Emil W. 1936 The Mogollon culture of southwestern New Mexico. Medallion Paper 20, Gila Pueblo, Globe, Arizona.Google Scholar
Haury, Emil W. 1940 Excavations in the Forestdale Valley, east-central Arizona. University of Arizona Bulletin, Social Science Bulletin 12.Google Scholar
Haury, Emil W., and Sayles, E. B. 1947 An early pithouse village of the Mogollon culture, Forestdale Valley, Arizona. University of Arizona Bulletin 18.Google Scholar
Hough, Walter 1919 Exploration of a pithouse village at Luna, New Mexico. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 55:409–431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irwin, Geoffrey 1978 Pots and entrepôts: a study of settlement, trade and the development of economic specialization in Papuan prehistory. World Archaeology 9:299–319.Google Scholar
Jernigan, E. # 1978 Jewelry of the prehistoric Southwest. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Jewett, Robert A., and Geoffrey A., Clark 1981 Olduvai living floors: estimations of local group size during the African Basal Pleistocene. In Actes Du IXe Congres de l'Union International Des Sciences Prehistoriques et Protohistoriques, edited by de Lumley, H.. CNRS, Paris, in press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Gregory A. 1973 Local exchange and early state development in southwestern Iran. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan Anthropological Papers 37.Google Scholar
Johnson, Gregory A. 1977 Aspects of regional analysis in archaeology. Annual Review of Anthropology 6:479–508.Google Scholar
Johnson, Gregory A. 1978 Information sources and the development of decision making organizations. In Social archaeology, beyond subsistence and dating, edited by Redman, C., Mary, Jane Berman, Edward V., Curtin, William T., Langhorne Jr., Nina M., Versaggi, and Jeffery C., Wanser, pp. 87–112. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
King, Thomas F. 1978 Don't that beat the band? Non-egalitarian political organization in prehistoric central California. In Social archaeology, beyond subsistence and dating, edited by Redman, C., Mary, Jane Berman, Edward V., Curtin, William T., Langhorne Jr., Nina M., Versaggi, and Jeffery C., Wanser, pp. 225–248. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Langness, L. L. 1964 Some problems in the conceptualization of highlands social structures. In American Anthropologist Special Publication: New Guinea, the Central Highlands (vol. 64(4), part 2), edited by Watson, J., pp. 164–182.Google Scholar
Lehmer, D. J. 1948 The Jornada Branch of the Mogollon. University of Arizona Bulletin 19(2).Google Scholar
Lightfoot, Kent G. 1979 Food redistribution among prehistoric pueblo groups. The Kiva 44:319–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Longacre, William A. 1970 Archaeology as anthropology: a case study. University of Arizona, Anthropological Papers 17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mair, Lucy 1964 Primitive government (second ed.). Penguin Books, Baltimore.Google Scholar
Martin, Paul S. 1940 The S.U. site, excavations at a Mogollon village, western New Mexico, 1939. Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Series 32(1).Google Scholar
Martin, Paul S. 1943 The S.U. site, excavations at a Mogollon village, second season, 1941. Field Museum of Natural History Anthropological Series 32(2).Google Scholar
Martin, Paul S., and Fred, Plog 1973 The archaeology of Arizona: a study of the Southwest region. Natural History Press, New York.Google Scholar
Martin, Paul S., and Rinaldo, J. B. 1947 The S.U. site, excavations at a MogoUon village, western New Mexico, third season, 1946. Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers 32(3).Google Scholar
Martin, Paul S., and Rinaldo, J. B. 1950 Turkey Foot Ridge site, a MogoUon village, Pine Lawn Valley, western New Mexico. Fieldiana: Anthropology 38.Google Scholar
Martin, Paul S., and Rinaldo, J. B. 1960 Excavations in the Upper Little Colorado Drainage, eastern Arizona. Fieldiana: Anthropology 51(1).Google Scholar
Martin, Paul S., John B., Rinaldo, and Ernst, Antevs 1949 Cochise and MogoUon sites. Pine Lawn Valley, western New Mexico. Fieldiana: Anthropology 38(1).Google Scholar
McGregor, John C. 1965 Southwestern archaeology (second ed.). University of Illinois Press, Urbana.Google Scholar
Meggitt, M. J. 1973 The pattern of leadership among the Mae-Enga of New Guinea. In Politics in New Guinea, edited by Berndt, R. M. and Lawrence, P., pp. 191–206. University of Washington Press, Seattle.Google Scholar
Meggitt, M. J. 1974 Pigs are our hearts! The Te exchange cycle among the Mae-Enga of New Guinea. Oceania 44: 165–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naroll, R. 1962 Floor area and settlement population. American Antiquity 27:587–589.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nesbitt, Paul H. 1931 The ancient Mimbrenos. Logan Museum, Bulletin 4. Beloit, Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Nesbitt, Paul H. 1938 Starkweather Ruin. Logan Museum, Publications in Anthropology 6. Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Oliver, Douglas L. 1955 A Solomon Island society. Beacon Press, Boston.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paynter, Robert, and John W., Cole 1980 Ethnographic overproduction, tribal political economy and the Kapauku of Irian Jaya. In Behind the myths of culture: essays in cultural materialism, edited by Eric, Ross, pp. 61–99. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Plog, Fred 1974 The study of prehistoric change. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Plog, Fred 1978 The Keresan bridge: an ecological account and archaeological account. In Social archaeology, beyond subsistence and dating, edited by Redman, C., Mary, Jane Berman, Edward V., Curtin, William T., Langhorne Jr., Nina M., Versaggi, and Jeffery C., Wanser, pp. 349–372. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Polgar, Steven 1975 Population, evolution and theoretical paradigms. In Population, ecology and social evolution, edited by Polgar, S., pp. 1–25. Mouton, The Hague, Netherlands.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, Shirley 1980 Material culture and behavior: a prehistoric example for the American Southwest. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe.Google Scholar
Rappaport, Roy 1968 Pigs for the ancestors. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Reed, Erik K. 1956 Types of village-plan layouts in the Southwest. In Prehistoric settlement patterns in the New World, • edited by Willey, G. R., pp. 11–17. Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology 23. New York.Google Scholar
Roberts, Frank H. H. 1929 Shabik'eshchee Village, a late Basketmaker site in the Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 92.Google Scholar
Roberts, Frank H. H. 1931 The Ruins at Kiatuthlanna, Eastern Arizona. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 100.Google Scholar
Sahlins, Marshall D. 1963 Poor man, rich man, big man, chief: political types in Melanesia and Polynesia. Comparative Studies in Society and History 5:285–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sahlins, Marshall D. 1972 Stone age economics. Aldine-Atherton, Chicago.Google Scholar
Sayles, E. B. 1945 The San Simon Branch, excavations at Cave Creek and in the San Simon Valley. Medallion Papers 34. Gila Pueblo, Globe, Arizona.Google Scholar
Schiffer, Michael B. 1976 Behavioral archaeology. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Sillitoe, Paul 1978 Big men and war in New Guinea. Man 13:252–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, Robert F. 1968 Population and political systems in tropical Africa. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Strathern, Andrew 1969 Finance and production: two strategies in New Guinea Highlands exchange systems. Oceania. 40: 42–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strathern, Andrew 1978 Tambu and Kina: profit, exploitation and reciprocity in two New Guinea exchange systems. Mankind 11:253–264. Sussman, Robert Google Scholar
Strathern, Andrew 1972 Child transport, family size and increase in human population during the Neolithic. Current Anthropology 13:258–259.Google Scholar
Swartz, Marc J., Victor W., Turner, and Arthur, Tuden 1966 Political anthropology. Aldine, Chicago.Google Scholar
Tower, Donald B. 1945 The use of marine mollusca and their value in reconstructing prehistoric trade routes in the American Southwest. Papers of the Excavators’ Club 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Upham, Steadman 1979 Intensification and exchange: an evolutionary model of non-egalitarian socio-political organization for the prehistoric plateau Southwest. Paper presented at the 44th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver, B.C.Google Scholar
Vayda, Andrew P. 1967 Pomo trade feasts. In Tribal and peasant economies, edited by Dalton, G., pp. 494–500. Natural History Press, New York.Google Scholar
Waddell, Eric 1972 The mound builders. University of Washington Press, Seattle.Google Scholar
Weigand, Phil C, Garmon, Harbottle, and Edward V., Sayre 1977 Turquoise sources and source analysis: Mesoamerica and the Southwestern U.S.A. In Exchange systems in prehistory, edited by Earle, T. and Ericson, J., pp. 15–34. Academic Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wendorf, Fred 1953 Archaeological studies in the Petrified Forest National Monument. Museum of Northern Arizona, Bulletin 27.Google Scholar
Wendorf, Fred 1956 Some distributions of settlement patterns in the pueblo Southwest. In Prehistoric settlement patterns in the New World, edited by Willey, G., pp. 18–25. Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology 23, New York.Google Scholar
Wheat, Joe Ben 1954 Crooked Ridge Valley (Arizona W:10:15). University of Arizona Social Science Bulletin 24.Google Scholar
Wheat, Joe Ben 1955 Mogollon culture prior to A.D. 1000. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology 10.Google Scholar
Wilcox, David R. 1979 The Hohokam regional system. In An archaeological test of sites in the Gila Butte-Santan region, south-central Arizona, edited by Glen E., Rice. Arizona State University, Anthropological Research Papers 18:77–116.Google Scholar
Woodbury, Richard B., and Ezra, B. Zubrow, W. 1979 Agricultural beginings, 2000 B.C.-A.D. 500. In Handbook of North American Indians, Southwest, edited by Alfonso, Ortiz, pp. 43–60. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Wright, Gary A. 1978 Social differentiation in the early Natufian. In Social archaeology, beyond subsistence and dating, edited by Redman, C., Mary, Jane Berman, Edward V., Curtin, William T., Langhorne Jr., Nina M., Versaggi, and Jeffery C., Wanser, pp. 201–223. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar