Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-22dnz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T19:46:12.024Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Production and Consumption in a Sacred Economy: The Material Correlates of High Devotional Expression at Chaco Canyon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Colin Renfrew
Colin Renfrew*
Affiliation:
The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2, 3ER, Englang
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The role of production, exchange, and consumption in Chaco Canyon can be analyzed successfully only when the system as a whole is considered. A cognitive-processual approach is used here to develop a model of Chaco as an essentially egalitarian society, centered on the Canyon as a Location of High Devotional Expression. The production and consumption of goods is understood in the context of an ideational/devotional significance of the great houses and great kivas of Chaco and of periodic visits made to them for devotional purposes (i.e., pilgrimages). Consideration is given to the structure of regional pilgrimages and the function of the multiple great houses in Chaco Canyon. This model is compared with two others: Chaco as a secondary trading center and Chaco as an elite power base. Production and consumption in both sacred and profane contexts are examined in order to distinguish among the three models.

Résumé

Résumé

El papel de la producción, intercambio, y consumo en el Cañon Chaco se puede analizar con éxito solamente desde la perspectivo del sistema completo. Aquí se utiliza un enfoque cognitivo y procesual para desarrollar un modelo de la sociedad de Chaco como una entidad igualitaria, en la que el Cañón funcionaba como una Localidad de Devoción Alta (LHDE). Se puede comprender la producción y el consumo de artículos básicos cuando están considerados dentro del contexto del significado de ideas y devoción representado por las Casas Grandes y las Kivas Grandes de Chaco, y de visitas periódicas (o peregrinajes) realizados por motivos religiosos. También se considera la estructura de peregrinajes regionales y la función de las Casa Grandes múltiples en el Cañón Chaco. Se hace una comparación entre este modelo y dos otros: (1) Chaco como un centro secundario de intercambios, y (2) Chaco como una base depoder élite. La producción y el consumo son examinados en contextos sagrados igual como en contextos seculares para distinguir entre los tres modelos.

Type
Special Section
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 66 , Issue 1 , January 2001 , pp. 14 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2001

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

Akins, N. J., and Schelberg, J. D. 1984 Evidence for Organizational Complexity as Seen from the Mortuary Practices at Chaco Canyon. In Recent Researches on Chaco Prehistory, edited by Judge, W. J. and Schelberg, J. D., pp. 89–102. National Park Service (Reports of the Chaco Center 8), Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Blanton, R. E., Feinman, G. M., Kowalewski, S. A., and Peregrine, P. N. 1996 A Dual-Processual Theory for the Evolution of Mesoamerican Civilization. Current Anthropology 37 : 1–14.Google Scholar
Earle, T. 1997 How Chiefs Came to Power : the Political Economy in Prehistory. Stanford University Press, Stanford.Google Scholar
Flannery, K. V. 1968 The Olmec and the Valley of Oaxaca : A Model for Interregional Variation in Formative Times. In Dumbarton Oaks Conference on the Olmec, edited by Benson, E. P., pp. 78–110. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC. Google Scholar
Frankenstein, S., and Rowlands, M. J. 1978 The Internal Structure and Regional Context of Early Iron Age Society in South-western Germany. Bulletin ofthelnstitute of Archaeology 15 : 73–112.Google Scholar
Freidel, D. A. 1981 The Political Economics of Residential Dispersion among the Lowland Maya. In Lowland Maya Settlement Patterns, edited by Ashmore, W., pp. 371–382. School of American Research, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Fritz, J. M. 1978 Palaeopsychology Today : Ideational Systems and Human Adaptation in Prehistory. In Social Archaeology, Beyond Subsistence and Dating, edited by Redman, C. L., Berman, M. J., Curtin, E. V., Langhorne, W. T., Versaggi, N. M., and Wanser, J. C., pp. 37–61. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Harbottle, G., and Weigand, P. C. 1992 Turquoise in Pre-Columbian America. Scientific American 266(2) : 56–62.Google Scholar
Johnson, G. A. 1982 Organization and Scalar Stress. In Theory and Explanation in Archaeology, edited by Renfrew, C., Rowlands, M. J., and Segraves, B. A., pp. 87–112. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Judd, N. M. 1954 The Material Culture of Pueblo Bonito. Smithsonian Institution (Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collection 124), Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Judge, W.J. 1989 Chaco Canyon—San Juan Basin. laDynamics of Southwestern Prehistory, edited by Cordell, L. S. and Gummerman, G. J., pp. 209–261. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC. Google Scholar
Judge, W.J. 1991 Chaco : Current Views of Prehistory and the Regional System. In Chaco and Hohokam, edited by Crown, P. L. and Judge, W.J. pp. 11–30. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Lekson, S. H. 1997 Rewriting Southwestern Prehistory. Archaeology 50 : 52–55.Google Scholar
Lekson, S. H. 1999 The Chaco Meridian, Centers of Political Power in the Ancient Southwest, Walnut Creek, CA, AltaMira Press.Google Scholar
Lekson, S. H. Windes, T. C., Stein, J. R., and Judge, W. J. 1988 The Chaco Canyon Community. Scientific American 256(7) : 72–81.Google Scholar
Marshall, M. P. 1997 The Chacoan Roads—A Cosmological Interpretation. In Anasaii-Architecture and American Design, edited by Morrow, B. H. and Price, V.B. pp. 6–74. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Mathien, F. J. 1986 External Contact and the Chaco Anasazi. In Ripples in the Chichimec Sea, edited by Mathien, F. J. and McGuire, R.H. pp. 220–242. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Nelson, B. A. 1995 Complexity, Hierarchy and Scale : A Controlled Comparison between Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, and La Quemada, Zacatecas, American Antiquity 60 : 597–618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Shaughnessy, A. 1897 Ode : The Music Makers. \aPalgrave’ s Golden Treasury, edited by Palgrave, F. T., pp. 1–2. London.Google Scholar
Rathje., WL. 1973 Models for Mobile Maya. In The Explanation of Culture Change, edited by Renfrew, C., pp. 731–757. Duckworth, London.Google Scholar
Redman, C. L. 1991 The Comparative Context of Social Complexity. In Chaco and Hohokam, edited by Crown, P. L. and Judge, W.J. pp. 277–292. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1974 Beyond a Subsistence Economy : The Evolution of Social Organisation in Prehistoric Eruope. In Reconstructing Complex Societies, edited by Moore, C. B., pp. 69–84. Supplement to the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1985a The Archaeology of Cult. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1985b Epilogue. In The Prehistory of Orkney, edited by Renfrew, C., pp. 243–261. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1988 The Minoan-Mycenaean Origins of the Panhellenic Games. In The Archaeology of the Olympics, the Olympics and other Festivals in Antiquity, edited by Raschke, W J., pp. 13–25. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1994 Towards a Cognitive Archaeology. In The Ancient Mind, Elements of Cognitive Archaeology, edited by Renfrew, C. and Zubrow, E. B. W., pp. 3–13. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 2000 “The auld hoose spaeks' : The Significance of Stone Age Orkney. In Neolithic Orkney in Its European Context, edited by Ritchie, A., pp. 1–20. McDonald Institute, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C, and Bahn, P. 1996 Archaeology : Theories, Methods and Practice. Thames & Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C, and Scarre, C. (editors) 1998 Cognition and Material Culture : The Archaeology of Symbolic Storage. McDonald Institute, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Roney, J. 1992 Prehistoric Roads and Regional Integration in the Chacoan System. In Anasazi Regional Organization and the Chaco System, edited by Doyel, D. E., pp. 123–132. Anthropological Papers, No. 5. Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Saitta, D. J. 1997 Power, Labor and the Dynamics of Change in Chacoan Political Economy. American Antiquity 62 : 7–26.Google Scholar
Sebastian, L. 1991 Sociopolitical Complexity and the Chaco System. In Chaco and Hohokam, edited by Crown, P. L. and Judge, W.J. pp. 109–134. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Sofaer, A. 1997 The Primary Architecture of the Chaco Canyon. In Anasazi-Architecture and American Design, edited by Morrow, B. H. and B, V.. Price.University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Stein, J., and Lekson, S. 1992 Anasazi Ritual Landscapes. In Anasazi Regional Organization and the Chaco System, edited by Doyel, D. E., pp. 87–100. Anthropological Papers, No. 5. Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
TolLH, W. 1985 Pottery Production, Public Architecture and the Chaco Anasazi System. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
TolLH, W. 1991 Material Distribution and Exchange in the Chaco System. In Chaco and Hohokam, edited by Crown, P. L. and Judge, W J., pp. 77–88. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe, NM.Google Scholar
Vivian, R. G. 1989 Kluckhohn Reappraised : The Chacoan System as an Egalitarian Enterprise. Journal of Anthropological Research 45 : 101–113.Google Scholar
Vivian, R. G., Dodgen, D., and Hartmann, E. H. 1978 Wooden Ritual Artifacts from Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona 32. University of New Mexico Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Weigand, P. C. 1992 The Macroeconomic Role of Turquoise within the Chaco Canyon System, In Anasazi Regional Organization and the Chaco System, edited by Doyel, D. E., pp. 169–173. Anthropological Papers, No. 5. Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Wilcox, D. R. 1993 The Evolution of the Chacoan Polity. In The Chimney Rock Archaeological Symposium, edited by Malville, J. M. and Matlock, G.. Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Fort Collins, CO. Google Scholar
Williamson, R., Fisher, H. J., Williamson, A. F., and Cochran, C. 1975 The Astronomical Record of Chaco Canyon. In Archaeoastronomy in Pre-Columbian America, edited by Aveni, A. F., pp. 33^42. University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar