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Environmental Drivers of Wealth Inequality among Ancestral Puebloan Farmers in Bears Ears National Monument

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2025

Roxanne Lois F. Lamson Open the ORCID record for Roxanne Lois F. Lamson [Opens in a new window] ,
Kurt M. Wilson ,
Hayley T. Kievman ,
Kenneth Blake Vernon ,
Peter M. Yaworsky  and
Brian F. Codding
Roxanne Lois F. Lamson*
Affiliation:
Sierra Forensic Consulting Inc., Colfax, CA, USA Department of Anthropology, and Archaeological Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Kurt M. Wilson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI, USA
Hayley T. Kievman
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, and Archaeological Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Kenneth Blake Vernon
Affiliation:
Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Peter M. Yaworsky
Affiliation:
School of Culture and Society, Department of Archeology and Heritage Studies, Aarhus University, Højbjerg, Denmark
Brian F. Codding
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, and Archaeological Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
*
Corresponding author: Roxanne Lois F. Lamson; Email: roxanneloislamson@gmail.com
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Abstract

Here, we explore variation in a new record of archaeological house-floor sizes from the southwestern United States relative to spatially explicit time series estimates of local precipitation. Our results show that inequality becomes more severe during periods of high precipitation. This supports the theory suggesting that inequality may emerge where resources are dense, predictable, and clumped within heterogenous and circumscribed environments. Our findings indicate that wealth inequality may emerge among populations with similar subsistence adaptations as a result of local socioenvironmental variation.

Resumen

Resumen

Aquí exploramos la variación en un nuevo registro de tamaños de pisos de casas arqueológicas del suroeste de los Estados Unidos en relación con una serie temporal espacialmente explícita de estimaciones de precipitación local. Nuestros resultados muestran que la desigualdad se vuelve más severa durante los períodos de alta precipitación. Esto respalda la teoría que sugiere que la desigualdad puede surgir donde los recursos son densos, predecibles y agrupados dentro de entornos heterogéneos y circunscritos. Nuestros hallazgos indican que la desigualdad de riqueza puede surgir entre poblaciones con adaptaciones de subsistencia similares como resultado de la variación socioambiental local.

Keywords

wealth inequalitybehavioral ecologySouthwest archaeologydesigualdad de riquezaecología del comportamientoarqueología del suroeste

Information

Type
Report
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 90 , Issue 3 , July 2025 , pp. 592 - 598
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for American Archaeology.

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