Anth 3511 Professor Gibbon

The Rise of Pueblo Society

From Village to Town: Hohokam, Mogollon, and Anasazi, AD 700-1130 A. The AD 700-1130 period one of most dynamic in prehistoric Southwest (SW). Rapid changes.

(1) Exceptional rise in population resulted in more people in a greater range of landscapes than in any other period.

(2) Large towns with hundreds of rooms and public architecture (e.g., Snaketown in southern Arizona and Chaco Canyon in northern New Mexico), but also numerous small villages.

(3) Three archaeological/cultural divisions recognized by archaeologists: Hohokam (ancestors of the O'odham), and Anasazi and Mogollon (ancestors of historic Pueblo people). What do archaeological cultural names mean versus the names of cultures?

(4) By 1 130-1 150, many of these towns were abandoned. What processes were at work? Are they environmental (climatic, erosional, etc.), social, political, ideological, etc.?

B. The Hohokam. In stark, arid desert areas of southern Arizona and extreme northern Mexico south of the Mogollon Rim. Major rivers (thus contact) run south and west.

(1) Traits: ballcourts and platform mounds, extensive canal networks to irrigate fields; cremated dead (unlike other SW groups); light brown colored ceramic vessels; domesticated plants - corn, bean, squash, cotton, agave; wild plants - mesquite beans, cactus fruits; hunted rabbit, and deer. A more Mesoamerican 'feel' than other SW areas because of worked shell and copper, stone palettes, etc..

(2) Best-known and largest Hohokam site is Snaketown in Phoenix Basin at confluence of Gila and Salt rivers.

(a) At peak in early-mid 1 i" century a population of c. 300-600; two ballcourts.

(b) Lived in wattle-and-daub Cjacal) structures built around shallow pits; sets of2-4 dwellings cluster around a central plaza - probably a kinship group such as an extended family or small lineage. C. The Mogollon. In east-central Arizona and west-central New Mexico in a markedly different environment than Hohokam. A colder, wetter, more wooded mountainous area of the SW.

(1) Around 10th and early 11th centuries began to built small, clustered pueblos. Retained old pithouse structures for ceremonial kivas, which are usually small and round. Rarer large, rectangular kivas are called Great Kivas. By the 13'h and 14~h centuries the Mogollon were building really large pueblo settlements.

(2) Daily life, subsistence, and artifacts much like the Hohokam except adapted to this region (e.g., wild plants harvested were pinon nuts, juniper berries, walnuts, cactus fruits) and with few irrigation canals. Characteristic SW assemblage of manes and metates, chipped stone tools,

ceramic vessels. Dead interred in shallow graves in extended position with a ceramic vessels and other grave 'goods.' (a) Most Mogollon vessels white or red with red or black painted decoration).

(b) Black-on-white ceramics of the Mimbres subgroup are world famous. (3) Lacked Mesoamerican-like traits such as worked shell and copper, stone palettes.

D. The Anasazi. Close 'cousins' of the Mogollon in he plateau country of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, southeastern Utah, and southwestern Colorado (the Four Corners region).

(1) Many ofbest-known SW settlements are Anasazi, e.g., in Mesa Verde National Park, Navajo National Monument, Canyon de Chelly national Monument, the Great Houses of Chaco Canyon national Historical Park. These settlements are usually tucked away in isolated rock shelters, in the middle ofbarren terrain, etc.

(a) Large settlements are exceptions. Most people lived in small villages (10-25 people) consisting ofa few masonry habitation and storage rooms (usually facing toward the rising sun), a centrally located kiva, and a trash area or midden to the east or southeast..

(b) Many masonry rooms used for storage not as dwellings. (2) Like Mogollon in subsistence and artifacts. Fields often along river drainages where floodwaters would spread after heavy rain. Buried dead in shallow graves in flexed position with knees to chest. (3) Anasazi pottery like Mogollon - geometric designs; but gray in color not brown.

E. Similarities and Differences between Hohokam, Mogollon, and Anasazi: (1) Similarities: similar economies, a focus on ritual, formal conventions for treatment of dead, artifact assemblages dominated by chipped stone tools and ceramics; most likely a 'tribal-like' socio-political organization. (2) Differences are sufficient to suggest social or political divisions based on linguistic and ideological differences. The Great Houses of Cbaco Canyon (Anasazi).

(1) A stark, barren area with c. 9" rainfall a year and an erratic growing season. But magnificent, monumental structures, an extensive road network, and astronomical observatories. Most building between AD 1025-1130.

(2) Pueblo Bonito the largest Chacoan great House. C 2 acres, 650 rooms often four stories high. Walls up to 3' thick.

(3) Besides Great Houses, hundreds of smaller villages throughout the canyon.

(4) Roads follow a straight path. Extend as far from the canyon as c. 60 miles. (5) Channeled water run-off from bedrock along north rim of the canyon.

Diversion dams, canals with multiple headgates. (6) What kind of social structures held the Chacoan system together?

Cliff Dwellings, Cooperation, and Conflict, AD 1130-1350

A. By 1130, some localities empty of human occupation, and by 1310 very large areas of the SW empty. Population does not seem to decline. Rather people emigrated to different areas.

(1) By 1310, people concentrated in only a few areas: southern edge of Black Mesa Hopi), western New Mexico (Zuni), parts of little Colorado River drainage and Mogollon Rim country, salt and Gila river basins in southern Arizona, northern Mexico, the Rio Grande valley, and a few other areas. (2) Some of new villages very large and spectacular, e.g., Mesa Verde cliff dwellings, such as Cliff Palace. But many small cliff dwellings, too, stuck in hard to access areas.

B. What happened? Why did the abandonment/settlement shift occur? (1) The Great Drought of AD 1276-1299 often mentioned, but could be social, political, ideological reasons, too. Signs of increasing conflict. Towns, Mounds, and Kachinas. AD 1350 to historic period. A. Abandonment at end of 13" century transformed the social landscape of the SW. All of southern Utah and Colorado and much of northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico abandoned. Center of habitation shifted to the south and east (e.g., Phoenix Basin, the Rio Grande Valley, Zuni region of west-central New Mexico, the Casas Grandes area of northern Mexico - these areas now became important centers).

B. Most people aggregated into large towns, such as Casas Grandes and Arroyo Hondo (abandoned itself in 1410). Many settlements built more for defense now (e.g., hard to access areas, plazas inside pueblos not outside C. Pueblo ritual transformed during late 13" and 14" centuries in northern SW. see it in kiva mural paintings, new decorative styles on ceramics, large plazas, changes in burial practices, and development or elaboration of the Kachina ritual.

(1) Kachina rituals (e.g., public dances) helped bond a more socially diverse population in large pueblos.

D. Evidence for emergence now of higher status individuals and elites (chiefdom?). But this level of social complexity gone by historic contact. Managed production and resource distribution?