Spatial and Temporal Variability in Hohokam Inequality

Summary

This paper will investigate synchronic and diachronic inequality among the Hohokam of southern Arizona‬. The Hohokam were an irrigation dependent, middle range society that occupied the low Sonoran Desert from approximately AD 500 to 1500. Over this impressive temporal span there were substantial changes, gradual and punctuated, to organizational systems, demographic pressure, and subsistence bases. The analysis presented in this paper will draw upon available data sets from substantial CRM excavations and some survey projects. The Gini coefficient and Theil T measures of inequality provide a means of analyzing inequality and quantifying at what organizational level it is most pronounced, e.g. household, settlement, community, or basin. Changes in relative levels of inequality will then be compared to the established cultural history of the area to understand how inequality contributed to substantial social change. This approach suggests some changes tied to environmental degradation or demographic pressure may have had more proximate social drivers.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Inequality from the Bottom Up: Measuring and Explaining Household Inequality in Antiquity

Keywords

Spatial Coverage