Understanding Complexity In The Prehistoric Southwest

Understanding Complexity In The Prehistoric Southwest
Author: George J. Gumerman
Publisher: Westview Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 1994-07-20
Genre: History
ISBN:

This volume brings together the combined efforts of 26 physical and behavioral scientists to attempt to understand the evolution of prehistoric Southwestern societies.

Evolving Complexity And Environmental Risk In The Prehistoric Southwest

Evolving Complexity And Environmental Risk In The Prehistoric Southwest
Author: Joseph A. Tainter
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 474
Release: 2018-05-04
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0429972210

This book explores how and why prehistoric Southwestern societies changed in complexity, and offers important new perspectives on evolution of culture. It discusses the factors that made prehistoric Southwesterners vulnerable to an arid environment, and their strategies to lessen risk and stress.

Social Complexity and Complex Systems in Archaeology

Social Complexity and Complex Systems in Archaeology
Author: Dries Daems
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2021-02-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000344738

Social Complexity and Complex Systems in Archaeology turns to complex systems thinking in search of a suitable framework to explore social complexity in Archaeology. Social complexity in archaeology is commonly related to properties of complex societies such as states, as opposed to so-called simple societies such as tribes or chiefdoms. These conceptualisations of complexity are ultimately rooted in Eurocentric perspectives with problematic implications for the field of archaeology. This book provides an in-depth conceptualisation of social complexity as the core concept in archaeological and interdisciplinary studies of the past, integrating approaches from complex systems thinking, archaeological theory, social practice theory, and sustainability and resilience science. The book covers a long-term perspective of social change and stability, tracing the full cycle of complexity trajectories, from emergence and development to collapse, regeneration and transformation of communities and societies. It offers a broad vision on social complexity as a core concept for the present and future development of archaeology. This book is intended to be a valuable resource for students and scholars in the field of archaeology and related disciplines such as history, anthropology, sociology, as well as the natural sciences studying human-environment interactions in the past.

Hinterlands and Regional Dynamics in the Ancient Southwest

Hinterlands and Regional Dynamics in the Ancient Southwest
Author: Alan P. Sullivan
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780816525140

Hinterlands and Regional Dynamics in the Ancient Southwest is the first volume dedicated to understanding the nature of and changes in regional social autonomy, political hegemony, and organizational complexity across the entire prehistoric American Southwest. With geographic coverage extending from the Great Plains to the Colorado River, and from Mesa Verde to the international border, the volumeÕs ten case studies synthesize research that enhances our understanding of the ancient SouthwestÕs highly variable demographic, land use, and economic histories. For this volume, ÒhinterlandsÓ are those areas whose archaeological records do not disclose the ceramic, architectural, and network evidence that initially led to the establishment of the Hohokam, Chaco, and Casas Grandes regional systems. Employing a variety of perspectives, such as the cultural landscapes approach, heterarchy, and the common-pool resource model, as well as technical methods, such as petrographic and stylistic-attribute analyses, the volumeÕs contributors explore variation in hinterland identities, subsistence ecology, and sociopolitical organization as regional systems expanded and contracted between the 9th and 14th centuries AD. The hinterlands of the prehistoric Southwest were home to a substantial number of people and were often used as resource catchments by the inhabitants of regional systems. Importantly, hinterlands also influenced developments of nearby regional systems, under whose footprint they managed to retain considerable autonomy. By considering the dynamics between hinterlands and regional systems, the volume reveals unappreciated aspects of the ancient SouthwestÕs peoples and their lives, thereby deepening our awareness of the regionÕs rich and complicated cultural past.

Encyclopedia of Prehistory

Encyclopedia of Prehistory
Author: Peter N. Peregrine
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 534
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1461505232

The Encyclopedia of Prehistory represents temporal dimension. Major traditions are an attempt to provide basic information also defined by a somewhat different set of on all archaeologically known cultures, sociocultural characteristics than are eth covering the entire globe and the entire nological cultures. Major traditions are prehistory of humankind. It is designed as defined based on common subsistence a tool to assist in doing comparative practices, sociopolitical organization, and research on the peoples of the past. Most material industries, but language, ideology, of the entries are written by the world's and kinship ties play little or no part in foremost experts on the particular areas their definition because they are virtually and time periods. unrecoverable from archaeological con The Encyclopedia is organized accord texts. In contrast, language, ideology, and ing to major traditions. A major tradition kinship ties are central to defining ethno is defined as a group of populations sharing logical cultures.

The Oxford Handbook of Southwest Archaeology

The Oxford Handbook of Southwest Archaeology
Author: Barbara Mills
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 888
Release: 2017-08-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0190697466

The American Southwest is one of the most important archaeological regions in the world, with many of the best-studied examples of hunter-gatherer and village-based societies. Research has been carried out in the region for well over a century, and during this time the Southwest has repeatedly stood at the forefront of the development of new archaeological methods and theories. Moreover, research in the Southwest has long been a key site of collaboration between archaeologists, ethnographers, historians, linguists, biological anthropologists, and indigenous intellectuals. This volume marks the most ambitious effort to take stock of the empirical evidence, theoretical orientations, and historical reconstructions of the American Southwest. Over seventy top scholars have joined forces to produce an unparalleled survey of state of archaeological knowledge in the region. Themed chapters on particular methods and theories are accompanied by comprehensive overviews of the culture histories of particular archaeological sequences, from the initial Paleoindian occupation, to the rise of a major ritual center in Chaco Canyon, to the onset of the Spanish and American imperial projects. The result is an essential volume for any researcher working in the region as well as any archaeologist looking to take the pulse of contemporary trends in this key research tradition.

The Way the Wind Blows

The Way the Wind Blows
Author: Roderick J. McIntosh
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 436
Release: 2012-07-24
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0231528809

-- Robert W. Harms, Yale University

Ancient Mesoamerican Warfare

Ancient Mesoamerican Warfare
Author: Kathryn M. Brown
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2003-10-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0759116067

The understanding of warfare in ancient Mesoamerica has blossomed in recent years. In this volume, the authors use recent empirical studies to help us understand the patterns and nature of Mesoamerican warfare. Using evidence from ceramics, settlement pattern, epigraphy, ethnohistory, and ethnography, these projects define the martial nature of Mesoamerican societies and link it to ritual, political economy, and other cultural systems. The studies range from preclassic to post-contact and from Belize to Central Mexico. A comparison between this corpus and warfare studies in the American Southwest is also included. This volume will be of interest to Mesoamericanists and other archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians of ancient warfare.

Alternative Leadership Strategies in the Prehispanic Southwest

Alternative Leadership Strategies in the Prehispanic Southwest
Author: Barbara J. Mills
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2000-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 0816520283

In considerations of societal change, the application of classic evolutionary schemes to prehistoric southwestern peoples has always been problematic for scholars. Because recent theoretical developments point toward more variation in the scale, hierarchy, and degree of centralization of complex societies, this book takes a fresh look at southwestern prehistory with these new ideas in mind. This is the first book-length work to apply new theories of social organization and leadership strategies to the prehispanic Southwest. It examines leadership strategies in a number of archaeological contextsÑfrom Chaco Canyon to Casas Grandes, from Hohokam to ZuniÑto show striking differences in the way that leadership was constructed across the region. These case studies provide ample evidence for alternative models of leadership in middle-range societies. By illustrating complementary approaches in the study of political organization, they offer new insight into power and inequality. They also provide important models of how today's archaeologists are linking data to theory, providing a basis for comparative analysis with other regions. CONTENTS Alternative Models, Alternative Strategies: Leadership in the Prehispanic Southwest / Barbara J. Mills Political Leadership and the Construction of Chacoan Great Houses, A.D. 1020-1140 / W. H. Wills Leadership, Long-Distance Exchange, and Feasting in the Protohistoric Rio Grande / William M. Graves and Katherine A. Spielmann Ritual as a Power Resource in the American Southwest / James M. Potter and Elizabeth M. Perry Ceramic Decoration as Power: Late Prehistoric Design Change in East-Central Arizona / Scott Van Keuren Leadership Strategies in Protohistoric Zuni Towns / Keith W. Kintigh Organizational Variability in Platform Mound-Building Groups of the American Southwest / Mark D. Elson and David R. Abbott Leadership Strategies among the Classic Period Hohokam: A Case Study / Karen G. Harry and James M. Bayman The Institutional Contexts of Hohokam Complexity and Inequality / Suzanne K. Fish and Paul R. Fish Leadership at Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico / Michael E. Whalen and Paul E. Minnis Reciprocity and Its Limits: Considerations for a Study of the Prehispanic Pueblo World / Timothy A. Kohler, Matthew W. Van Pelt, and Lorene Y. L. Yap Dual-Processual Theory and Social Formations in the Southwest / Gary M. Feinman

The Architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

The Architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
Author: Stephen H Lekson
Publisher: University of Utah Press
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2007-06-13
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0874809487

A fresh volume on the ancient structures of Chaco Canyon, built by native peoples between AD 850 and 1130, that unifies older information on the area with new advanced research techniques focusing on studies of technology and building types, analyses of architectural change, and readings of the built environment, aided by over 150 maps, floor plans, elevations and photos.