Changes in household organization and the development of Classic Period Mimbres pueblos

Summary

Changes in household organization were a major catalyst for social change in the Mimbres River Valley of southwestern New Mexico across the transition from pithouses to pueblos. This paper summarizes recent work at a large Pithouse period village, the Harris Site, and the Elk Ridge site, a large Classic period (AD 1000-1150) pueblo that is illuminating the relationship between households, community integration, and social change. Work at the Harris Site has documented the important role that corporate kin groups played in intra- and inter-village social dynamics. These social groups made up the "core households" (defined by Shafer 2003) that were the initial land-holding occupants of many of the larger Classic period pueblos. Data from Elk Ridge is further illustrating the different trajectories that households took as pueblos expanded during the Classic period. I explore the reasons for the fundamental changes in household organization that occurred during the Pithouse period, the implications that these have for understanding the initial development of pueblos, and the reasons for the variability in households that are seen at different Classic period pueblos across the Mimbres region and through time.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Households and Social Evolution: Comprehensive Approaches to Social Transformation

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14702