Potters and Communities of Practice

Potters and Communities of Practice
Author: Linda S. Cordell
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2015-11-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0816544530

The peoples of the American Southwest during the 13th through the 17th centuries witnessed dramatic changes in settlement size, exchange relationships, ideology, social organization, and migrations that included those of the first European settlers. Concomitant with these world-shaking events, communities of potters began producing new kinds of wares—particularly polychrome and glaze-paint decorated pottery—that entailed new technologies and new materials. The contributors to this volume present results of their collaborative research into the production and distribution of these new wares, including cutting-edge chemical and petrographic analyses. They use the insights gained to reflect on the changing nature of communities of potters as they participated in the dynamic social conditions of their world.

Communities and Households in the Greater American Southwest

Communities and Households in the Greater American Southwest
Author: Robert J. Stokes
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2019-07-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1607328852

Communities and Households in the Greater American Southwest presents new research on human organization in the American Southwest, examining families, households, and communities in the Ancestral Puebloan, Mogollon, and Hohokam major cultural areas, as well as the Fremont, Jornada Mogollon, and Lipan Apache areas, from the time of earliest habitation to the twenty-first century. Using historical data, dialectic approaches, problem-oriented and data-driven analysis, and ethnographic and gender studies methodologies, the contributors offer diverse interpretations of what constitutes a site, village, and community; how families and households organized their domestic space; and how this organization has influenced researchers’ interpretations of spatially derived archaeological data. Today’s archaeologists and anthropologists understand that communities operate as a multi-level, -organizational, -contextual, and -referential human creation, which informs their understanding of how people actively negotiate their way through and around community constraints. The chapters in this book creatively examine these interactions, revealing the dynamic nature of ancient and modern groups in the American Southwest. The book has two broad complementary themes: one focusing on household decision-making, identity, and structural relations with the greater community; the other concerned with community organization and integration, household roles within the community, and changes in community organization—violence and destabilization, coalescence and cooperation—over time. Communities and Households in the Greater American Southwest weaves a rich tapestry of ancient and modern life through innovative approaches that will be of interest not only to Southwestern archaeologists but to all researchers and students interested in social organization at the household and community levels. Contributors: James R. Allison, Andrew Duff, Lindsay Johansson, Michael Lindeman, Myles Miller, James Potter, Alison E. Rautman, J. Jefferson Reid, Katie Richards, Oscar Rodriguez, Barbara Roth, Kristin Safi, Deni Seymour, Robert J. Stokes, Richard K. Talbot, Scott Ure, Henry Wallace, Stephanie M. Whittlesey

Engendering Households in the Prehistoric Southwest

Engendering Households in the Prehistoric Southwest
Author: Barbara J. Roth
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2016-12-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 081653683X

The French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss once described a village as “deserted” when all the adult males had vanished. While his statement is from the first half of the twentieth century, it nonetheless illustrates an oversight that has persisted during most of the intervening decades. Now Southwestern archaeologists have begun to delve into the task of “engendering” their sites. Using a “close to the ground” approach, the contributors to this book seek to engender the prehistoric Southwest by examining evidence at the household level. Focusing on gendered activities in household contexts throughout the southwestern United States, this book represents groundbreaking work in this area. The contributors view households as a crucial link to past activities and behavior, and by engendering these households, we can gain a better understanding of their role in prehistoric society. Gender-structured household activities, in turn, can offer insight into broader-scale social and economic factors. The chapters offer a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to engendering households and examine topics such as the division of labor, gender relations, household ritual, ceramic and ground stone production and exchange, and migration. Engendering Households in the Prehistoric Southwest ultimately addresses broader issues of interest to many archaeologists today, including households and their various forms, identity and social boundary formation, technological style, and human agency. Focusing on gendered activities in household contexts throughout the southwestern United States, this book represents groundbreaking work in this area. The contributors view households as a crucial link to past activities and behavior, and by engendering these households, we can gain a better understanding of their role in prehistoric society. Gender-structured household activities, in turn, can offer insight into broader-scale social and economic factors.

Pots, Potters, and Models

Pots, Potters, and Models
Author: Karen Gayle Harry
Publisher: Statistical Research Technical
Total Pages: 746
Release: 1992
Genre: History
ISBN:

This CD-ROM and book present the research at a large, dispersed residential settlement located along the Santa Cruz River occupied during the Rincon phase of the Sedentary period between about A.D. 950 and 1100. One of the most intensively excavated settlements in the Tucson Basin, excavations at the SRI locus provided an opportunity to return to a previously excavated site and contribute new evidence for earlier findings. West Branch has been identified as a community of potters who fabricated arange of painted, plain, and red ware ceramics. The research focused on this notion, exploring how pots were made, the ways in which potters carried out their craft, and models for the production and distribution of ceramic containers. Volume 1, Feature Descriptions, Material Culture, and Specialized Analyses, is provided in CD-ROM format and includes details of fieldwork such as feature descriptions and the descriptive artifactual and subsistence-data reports. Volume 2, Synthesis and Interpretations, presented in book format, offers the results of synthetic and interpretive analyses.

Investigations at Sunset Mesa Ruin

Investigations at Sunset Mesa Ruin
Author: Richard Ciolek-Torrello
Publisher: Statistical Research Technical
Total Pages: 342
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN:

Sunset Mesa Ruin lies near the confluence of the Rillito and Santa Cruz Rivers in the northern Tucson Basin. First recorded in the late 1930s by Frank Midvale, the site contains two components: a prehistoric Rincon phase Hohokam settlement dating between A.D. 1000 and 1100 and a historical-period component centered on a three-room adobe dating to the late nineteenth century. Much of the report focuses on Rincon phase settlement and subsistence. The authors use data collected from the excavation of a discrete residential cluster of five pit houses to document a sequential series of small courtyard groups. Excavation of a canal segment provides the authors the opportunity to investigate Hohokam irrigation practices in the Tucson Basin, which differ dramatically from their better-known counterparts in the Phoenix Basin.