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CC BY-NC-ND V4.0, Open Access
Thesis
Examining the Centralization of Social Influence in the Late Pueblo I Northern Southwest
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2022
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000005120
Abstract
This thesis develops a method for using common types of archaeological artifacts to examine the centralization of social power in the Mesa Verde Region during the late ninth century AD. This method discerns differences between the structures of social influence at four Ancestral Puebloan settlements using material remains related to communal activities, as such communal events are venues for social change or for the reinforcement of extant social structures. I use patterns in ceramic and faunal remains associated with pit structures to assess the potential for the individuals occupying these structures to aggregate social influence. The four sites analyzed are Duckfoot Pueblo, the Mitchell Springs Community Group, McPhee Village, and Grass Mesa Village.
The analysis of six measures of ceramic and faunal data from pit structure floors at these four sites using a Principal Components Analysis generates two salient axes of variability: household participation in communal events, and the degree of aggrandizing behaviors in which the households engaged. This method elucidates the same site-wide patterns that previous studies have described for the sites using other sources of evidence such as architecture and method of structure decommissioning, but uses a multivariate assemblage-based approach that does not require the excavation of whole structures or rely on the presence of preciosities. The sites in this sample have differences in their distributions of social influence which can be seen by using several straightforward measurements of common material types, showing the effectiveness of this method of studying power dynamics within and between communities and villages.
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Details
- Title
- Examining the Centralization of Social Influence in the Late Pueblo I Northern Southwest
- Creators
- Laura Brumbaugh
- Contributors
- Andrew I Duff (Advisor)Timothy A Kohler (Committee Member)Donna M Glowacki (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 100
- Identifiers
- 99901019839401842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis