Evaluating Multi-Sector Supply and Demand on Canal System 2 as a Component of a Complementary Hohokam Economy

Summary

As one of the largest canal systems in the Phoenix Basin, Canal System 2 likely served as the economic, social, and political center of life for thousands of people residing on the north side of the Salt River. Canal System 2 capitalized on a fortuitous geographic location that permitted irrigation systems and associated fields to extend miles from the river. Despite the large size of the canal infrastructure, the low population density relative to the size of the system indicates that local residents may have invested more time in building, maintaining, and using irrigation networks than their nearby counterparts. This paper explores how high labor investments in irrigation agriculture by the residents of Canal System 2 may have contributed to demand for goods produced by specialists. Specialists located in areas less optimal for irrigation agriculture may have supplied goods to the residents of Canal System 2. The analysis evaluates the emergence of a Hohokam economy that relied on complementary exchange of agricultural and craft products by producers and consumers located in different areas of the Phoenix Basin.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Society and Economy in the Hohokam World: New Evidence and Insights from Canal System 2, Phoenix, Arizona

Keywords

Spatial Coverage