Identity and Social Transformation across the

606 Pages·2011·27.65 MB·English

by  Matt Peeples

Identity and Social Transformation in the
Prehispanic Cibola World: A.D. 1150-1325
by
Matthew A. Peeples

A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy

Approved November 2011 by the
Graduate Supervisory Committee:

Michelle Hegmon, Co-Chair
Keith Kintigh, Co-Chair
Katherine Spielmann

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
December 2011
ABSTRACT
This dissertation explores the interrelationships between periods of rapid
social change and regional-scale social identities. Using archaeological data from
the Cibola region of the U.S. Southwest, I examine changes in the nature and
scale of social identification across a period of demographic and social upheaval
(A.D. 1150-1325) marked by a shift from dispersed hamlets, to clustered villages,
and eventually, to a small number of large nucleated towns. This transformation
in settlement organization entailed a fundamental reconfiguration of the
relationships among households and communities across an area of over 45,000
2
km .
This study draws on contemporary social theory focused on political
mobilization and social movements to investigate how changes in the process of
social identification can influence the potential for such widespread and rapid
transformations. This framework suggests that social identification can be divided
into two primary modes; relational identification based on networks of interaction
among individuals, and categorical identification based on active expressions of
affiliation with social roles or groups to which one can belong. Importantly,
trajectories of social transformations are closely tied to the interrelationships
between these two modes of identification.
This study has three components: Social transformation, indicated by rapid
demographic and settlement transitions, is documented through settlement studies
drawing on a massive, regional database including over 1,500 sites. Relational
identities, indicated by networks of interaction, are documented through ceramic
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compositional analyses of over 2,100 potsherds, technological characterizations of
over 2,000 utilitarian ceramic vessels, and the distributions of different types of
domestic architectural features across the region. Categorical identities are
documented through stylistic comparisons of a large sample of polychrome
ceramic vessels and characterizations of public architectural spaces.
Contrary to assumptions underlying traditional approaches to social
identity in archaeology, this study demonstrates that relational and categorical
identities are not necessarily coterminous. Importantly, however, the strongest
patterns of relational connections prior to the period of social transformation in
the Cibola region largely predict the scale and structure of changes associated
with that transformation. This suggests that the social transformation in the Cibola
region, despite occurring in a non-state setting, was governed by similar dynamics
to well-documented contemporary examples.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to so many colleagues who have helped me
throughout my graduate career. I never would have made it to this point without
their friendship and encouragement. First of all, I would like to thank my
dissertation committee: Michelle Hegmon, Keith Kintigh, and Kate Spielmann.
They have been incredibly supportive and have always pushed me beyond what I
ever thought possible. I could not have asked for better advisors or role models. I
would also especially like to thank Peggy Nelson and all of the folks in various
iterations of the Long-Term Vulnerability and Transformation Project (the
Biocomplexity Project) at Arizona State University. I learned as much in our
meetings as I did in all the hours I spent in the classroom over the years. I would
also like to thank Maria Franklin and Darrell Creel at the University of Texas for
first getting me interested in anthropology and archaeology and setting me along
this path.
A synthetic, collections-based project such as this could never have been
completed without the assistance of numerous individuals and institutions. The
list of people I have to thank is long, but this dissertation would not be a fraction
of what it is without each and every one of these individuals. Access to
collections was facilitated by Arelyn Simon and Dolma Roder at the
Archaeological Research Institute, Arthur Vokes and Mike Jacobs at the Arizona
State Museum, Jamie Kelly and Jonathan Haas at the Chicago Field Museum of
Natural History, Patricia Capone, Susan Haskall, and Viva Fisher at the Harvard
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Darrell Creel, Laura
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Nightengale, and Jim Neely at the Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory,
Elaine Hughes at the Museum of Northern Arizona, Linda Matthews and Carol
Farnsworth at the Casa Malpais Archaeological Park, Paul Stavast at the Brigham
Young University Museum of Peoples and Cultures, Jim Shrieve at SWCA, and
Jonathan Damp at the Zuni Cultural Resource Enterprise. I would also like to
thank the wonderful staff at the Archaeological Records Management Section at
the Museum of New Mexico. They were extremely helpful whenever I visited and
were always willing send along site records when I could not be there.
Many individuals very generously shared data used in this study including
Jim Allison, Andrew Duff, Dennis Gilpin, Kelley Hays-Gilpin, Sarah Herr, Deb
Huntley, Karl Laumbach, Toni Laumbach, Steve LeBlanc, Patrick Lyons, Barbara
Mills, Greg Schachner, Jimmy Smith and all the folks in the Tarrant County
Archaeological Society, Jason Theuer, Scott Van Keuren, and all of the good
folks at the Pueblo of Zuni, the Zuni Cultural Resource Enterprise and the Center
for Desert Archaeology. Jeff Ferguson and Michael Glascock provided essential
support and guidance for the analysis and interpretation of the INAA data
presented in this study. I would also like to thank all of the ASU students who
helped me with my ceramic technological coding including in particular Ashley
Bitowf, Will Russel, Garrett Trask, and Katie Whitmore. They measured
hundreds of ceramic sherds and vessels each and never complained even when
they got caliper thumb.
This project was supported financially by several organizations. The
ceramic compositional analyses were funded primarily through a National
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Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant (BSC-9043134). Additional
funds for compositional analyses as well as equipment and travel were provided
by a Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant (#09094295). Travel
funds for an initial pilot data recording project were provided by Arizona State
University through two Graduate Research Grants from the School of Human
Evolution & Social Change and a Museum Collections Research Award through
the Museum of Anthropology. The INAA ceramic compositional study was also
supported through the Archaeometry Subsidy Program at the University of
Missouri Research Reactor (SBR-9802366). The settlement database used in this
study was originally compiled as part of the National Science Foundation
Biocomplexity program funded Long Term Vulnerability and Transformation
Project at Arizona State University (BCS-0508001; PI: Margaret Nelson). Finally,
funds from the Society for American Archaeology Fred Plog Memorial
Fellowship allowed me to hire an undergraduate research assistant, Garrett Trask,
who helped with the organization and implementation of several of the analyses
presented here.
I will always cherish my time in graduate school and the life-long friends I
made at ASU and elsewhere. I could never hope to list all of your names, but I
hope you all know how important you are to me. I owe an unimaginable amount
to my parents who have supported me in whatever I have done and have always
pushed me to be the best that I could be. Finally, I would like to thank Melissa.
Her support, encouragement, and love not only helped me get through this process
but made it more fun than I could have imagined.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................... xii
LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................. xvii
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 1
Social Identity and Social Transformation ........................................ 2
The Case Study ................................................................................... 5
2 SOCIAL IDENTITY, COLLECTIVE ACTION, AND THE
ORGANIZATION OF SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS ............ 8
Traditional Perspectives on Social Identity ....................................... 8
Alternative Perspectives on Social Identity, Collective Action, and
Social Transformations ..................................................................... 17
Relational Identification ....................................................... 18
Categorical Identification ..................................................... 20
Collective Action, Social Movements, and Social
Transformation ..................................................................... 23
Linking Relations and Categories to the Organization of
Social Transformation .......................................................... 30
Key Principles ...................................................................... 36
Organization of the Study ................................................................. 38
3 SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE CIBOLA WORLD .......... 47
Defining the Cibola Region .............................................................. 48
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CHAPTER Page
The Physiographic and Environmental Context .............................. 52
Previous Research in the Greater Cibola Region............................. 59
The Cibola Region: A.D. 1000-1540 ............................................... 62
A.D. 1000-1150: Late Pueblo II .......................................... 64
A.D. 1150-1275: Pueblo III ................................................. 67
A.D. 1275-1325: Early Pueblo IV ....................................... 73
A.D. 1325-1400: Late Pueblo IV ......................................... 79
A.D. 1400-1540: Protohistoric Period ................................. 81
Social Transformation across the Cibola Region ............................ 83
Anasazi and Mogollon in the Cibola Region ................................... 91
4 DEFINING CERAMIC COMPOSITIONAL GROUPS THROUGH
NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS ...................................... 97
Ceramic Chemical Characterization Using NAA ............................ 97
The Cibola Region NAA Sample ................................................... 100
Geology and Clay Availability ....................................................... 104
Defining Ceramic Compositional Groups ..................................... 108
Data Pretreatment ............................................................... 109
Defining Initial Reference Groups ..................................... 109
Core Group Evaluation ...................................................... 111
Non-Core Group Assignment ............................................ 114
Provisional Group Assignment .......................................... 117
Sub-Groups ......................................................................... 117
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CHAPTER Page
Unassigned Samples........................................................... 118
Relating Compositional Groups to Production Sources ................ 119
Summary of Results ........................................................................ 121
5 CERAMIC CIRULATION AND REGIONAL NETWORKS OF
INTERACTION ........................................................................... 131
Ceramic Circulation as a Proxy for Patterns of Interaction ........... 132
Local vs. Non-Local Pottery........................................................... 137
Settlement Clusters and External Relationships ............................ 139
Regional Patterns of Ceramic Circulation Through Time ............. 145
Utilitarian Ceramics ........................................................... 145
Decorated Ceramics ........................................................... 151
Community Specialization in Ceramic Production ....................... 161
Summary and Conclusions ............................................................. 168
6 THE TECHNOLOGY OF POTTERY PRODUCTION AND
RELATIONAL CONNECTIONS .............................................. 173
Utilitarian Pottery in the Cibola Region ......................................... 174
Characterizing the Technology of Pottery Production .................. 179
Defining the Sample and Controlling for Bias .............................. 182
Measuring Relative Technological Similarity ............................... 185
Results ............................................................................................. 194
Relational Connections and Social Networks ................................ 200
Comparison with Traditional Typological Analyses ..................... 211
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CHAPTER Page
Summary and Conclusions ............................................................. 219
7 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURAL SPACES AND RELATIONAL
CONNECTIONS ......................................................................... 225
Architectural Data ........................................................................... 226
Room Size ....................................................................................... 228
Intramural Domestic Architectural Features .................................. 238
Hearth form and Placement ............................................... 239
Grinding Facility Form and Size ....................................... 246
Wall Construction Methods ............................................................ 252
Summary and Conclusions ............................................................. 255
8 CERAMIC DESIGN AND CATEGORICAL IDENTITIES ........... 261
Painted Ceramics in the Cibola Region ......................................... 262
Cibola White Ware ............................................................. 263
Early White Mountain Red Ware ...................................... 265
Zuni Glaze Ware ................................................................ 267
Late White Mountain Red Ware ........................................ 268
Roosevelt Red Ware ........................................................... 270
Jeddito Yellow Ware .......................................................... 271
Puerco Valley Red Ware .................................................... 272
Painted Mogollon Brown Ware Types .............................. 273
Major Trends in Painted Pottery through Time................. 275
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