Social and Political Organization (Other Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Payson Sheets. Christine C. Dixon.

Volcanic preservation allows for detailed reconstructions of a variety of social relationships and material boundaries at Ceren. Service relationships are inferred from proximity of households associated with special-function structures, such as the religious complex, the sauna and the community governance center. These data show a social function of providing service relationships from each household to the community. Socioeconomic functions are also evident in the form of other...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Pool.

This is an abstract from the "Coffee, Clever T-Shirts, and Papers in Honor of John S. Justeson" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The greenstone figure known as the Tuxtla Statuette is significant as one of 12 objects with an Epi-Olmec text, and the first to be described in the scholarly literature. For over a century it was misidentified as having been recovered from the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, near the town of San Andrés Tuxtla, Veracruz. The author...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gabriel Prieto.

Traditionally, Andean archaeologists label residential settlements as "Salinar" or "Moche" and automatically assumed they "belong" to a particular society/culture. Since 2010, I have been excavating multiple sites around Huanchaco bay, located in the littoral of the Moche Valley, North Coast of Peru. One particularity of this coastline is that there is still an active group of fishermen exploiting the sea resources using traditional technology. The continuity between the earliest occupation...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Karen Greig. Richard Walter.

This is an abstract from the "Rethinking Hinterlands in Polynesia" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The concept of ‘hinterland’ encompasses ideas of distance, marginality and challenge and is often contrasted with ‘core’, which in turn implies centrality and resource richness. In this paper we address the applicability of both these concepts in New Zealand and examine their role in understanding long-term Maori history. We suggest that high...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christina Halperin.

This is an abstract from the "Cooperative and Noncooperative Transitions in the Archaeological Record" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Governance during the Classic period in the Maya Lowlands was heavily based on the institutions and relationships surrounding divine kingship, which was characterized by paramount rulers and their hierarchical relations with other political officials and the populace. This paper examines changes to this governing...

DOCUMENT Citation Only George J. Micheletti.

The Late Classic period (AD 550 – 800) at Pacbitun, Belize brought about heightened prosperity evinced in a surge of architectural development and an increase in precious exotic materials. However, despite continued growth, by the close of the Late Classic Pacbitun’s affluence appears to have diminished considerably. To the north, settlements of the Belize River Valley also seemingly undergo a concomitant florescence and economic decline. Research suggests the pecuniary instability of the Belize...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeffrey Blomster.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The emergence of sedentary and socio-politically complex societies represents a fundamental transformation in Mesoamerica. At the highland site of Etlatongo, in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico, recent excavations have explored later Early Formative (1400 -1000 cal BCE) public space, a ballcourt, recovering a large assemblage of macrobotanical, faunal,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Theo Kassebaum.

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Care and Power" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper builds on the work of Duclos and Criado to dive into the speculative potential of a framework of care by considering how archaeological worlds are constructed through multispecies relationships in diverse and multiple ways. Speculating about care requires acknowledging relationalities across categories. This has significant implications for...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Henry Tantaleán.

This is an abstract from the "Social Dynamics in the North Highlands of Peru during the Formative Period: Pacopampa project’s Contribution for Understanding the Early Complex Societies in the Andes" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. En esta ponencia se revisan las diferentes investigaciones relacionadas con el denominado periodo Formativo (1800-200 a.C) en el valle de Chicama y áreas cercanas. Asimismo, se presentan las nuevas evidencias generadas...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Anna Guengerich. James M. Crandall.

This is an abstract from the "After the Feline Cult: Social Dynamics and Cultural Reinvention after Chavín" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In contrast to a long history of study of the Late Intermediate period societies of the Utcubamba Basin, research focusing on pre-Middle Horizon social change has only begun within the last 10 years. In this paper we examine existing literature from early archaeological contexts and introduce findings from our...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Petrozza. Jason Yaeger. M. Kathryn Brown. Kit Nelson. Rachel Horowitz.

Archaeologists working in the Maya area frequently find dense deposits of artifacts that are classified ‘terminal deposits,’ ‘final deposits,’ or ‘problematical deposits’. These classifications may accurately reflect a deposit’s stratigraphic placement, but ultimately mask or even misrepresent the diverse social behaviors which led to the creation of such deposits. Excavations in the courtyard in front of Structure B-6 at Xunantunich, Belize, exposed a dense deposit of artifacts. Through...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Aurelio López Corral. Ramón Santacruz.

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology and Material Culture of the Spanish Invasion of Mesoamerica and Forging of New Spain" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El contacto entre tlaxcaltecas y españoles en 1519 inicio un periodo de cambios fundamentales en las relaciones de poder entre los altepemeh del altiplano central mesoamericano. Para Tlaxcallan, la alianza representó una oportunidad para sortear los problemas políticos, bélicos y económicos...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jerry Lyon. Barbara Montgomery. Jeffrey Jones.

The Dairy site is a long-lived prehistoric locality situated at the juncture of the Tortolita Mountains piedmont and the Santa Cruz River floodplain north of Tucson, Arizona. Although the site has yielded important evidence of early Hohokam settlement and cultural developments, the sporadic nature of investigations, the lack of data from early fieldwork, and the destruction of significant portions of the site by the original Shamrock Dairy operation provide substantial challenges to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Gontarski.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists have long sought to understand and identify the complexities and nuances of the Salinar (400–200 BC), Gallinazo (200 BC–AD 200) and Virú (200 BC–700 CE) cultures located on the northern coast of Peru, where there is much discussion and debate about the cultural and political identities and chronologies of each group. Based on previous work,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Izumi Shimada. Haagen Klaus. Brandi MacDonald. Kayeleigh Sharp. Ken-ichi Shinoda.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. What do the multiplicity and coexistence of monumental mounds commonly called huacas at a single site represent about group(s) that built them? Do these huacas symbolize distinct, unrelated (in terms of kinship), competing sociopolitical groups or, conversely, related, multiple lineages, or something else? These questions guide our ongoing research at the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Erin Blankenship-Sefczek. Joseph Ball.

Classic Maya social status is more complex than an elite verses non-elite dichotomy. Research suggests that a "middle" status group exists. However, the social segment from which they arise is unknown. This study focuses on individuals from the urban center of Buenavista del Cayo who are below the ruling elites in the "middle" rungs of social status, and those from the neighboring farming community of Guerra who are recognized as nonelites. Previous research suggested that no biological affinity...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Samantha Linford.

Between PIII and PIV the Southwest saw the largest shift in population from the Mesa Verde region (SW Colorado) to the Northern Rio Grande (N. New Mexico). Traces of this migration are difficult to identify in material culture, but Pueblo oral traditions document the migration from the North and discuss two moieties: summer and winter. My research aims to understand dual division within Pueblo society and whether summer and winter moieties can be referenced through ceramic designs before and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Keith Prufer.

This is an abstract from the "Cooperative and Noncooperative Transitions in the Archaeological Record" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Major evolutionary transitions in sociality are premised on the formation of cooperative groups and transformation of the collective group into an entity. Prior to the development of institutions, the kin group was the primary locus of cooperation and was limited largely by environmental and physical constraints....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mai Takigami.

This is an abstract from the "Social Dynamics in the North Highlands of Peru during the Formative Period: Pacopampa project’s Contribution for Understanding the Early Complex Societies in the Andes" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Multi-isotope analyses of human and animal remains at the Pacopampa site have unveiled a significant transformation in food resource utilization during the Late Formative period. The increased consumption of C4 plants...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Scott Sunell. Christopher Jazwa.

This is an abstract from the "Complex Fisher-Hunter-Gatherers of North America" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Chumash of the Santa Barbara Channel region of southern California are well known among archaeologists for developing complex sociopolitical systems within a hunter-gatherer-fisher subsistence system. This includes the advent of both hereditary high-status leaders and craft specialization in the form of shell bead and stone drill...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Leah Moyes.

This is an abstract from the "Teotihuacan: Multidisciplinary Research on Mesoamerica's Classic Metropolis" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The study of sculpture at Teotihuacan—as at many other sites—has traditionally focused on larger, more elaborate sculptures from civic-ceremonial contexts. As a result, less is known about the distribution, ubiquity, and diversity of the use of sculpture in other contexts and, specifically, what relation it has...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Patricia Ochoa Castillo.

Dos de los sitios más relevantes en el Centro de México durante el Formativo Inferior y Medio fueron Tlatilco y Tlapacoya, los que presentan una gran riqueza cultural. Sin embargo, la relación entre ellos y la función que tuvieron en su época son grandes interrogantes que aún persisten; esta revaloración será abordada a través de la revisión y comparación de sus materiales arqueológicos (cerámica y figurillas), incluyendo los de otros sitios ubicados tanto dentro, como fuera de la Cuenca de...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Noah Place.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Human treponemal diseases (yaws, endemic syphilis, and venereal syphilis) have a long and storied past in the North American Desert West, with the earliest case dating back roughly 1,500 years. The identification of lesions associated with treponemal disease at two Cienega phase (400 BCE–50 CE) sites in southern Arizona and northern Sonora, however, move...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Chris Caseldine.

This is an abstract from the "WHY PLATFORM MOUNDS? PART 1: MOUND DEVELOPMENT AND CASE STUDIES" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The period between the collapse of the ballcourt system (ca. A.D. 1070) and the formalization of Civano phase platform mounds (ca. A.D. 1300) has long perplexed Hohokam scholars. Before and after this period, members of Hohokam society gathered together at centralized locations to participate in and observe public...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ezekia Mtetwa.

This is an abstract from the "Cooperative and Noncooperative Transitions in the Archaeological Record" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Great Zimbabwe, the major civilization south of the pyramids, had a vibrant metallurgical industry within the urban center, but the most significant iron production was located in the hinterland. Here, extensive clusters of natural draft furnaces—some with unique rectangular morphologies—alongside abundant tap...