Measuring Mobility: Comparing Indices Developed from Architectural and Paleoethnobotanical Datasets

Summary

Thirty years of research on mobility and sedentism shows that population movement occurred for reasons both ecological and social. Population movement could occur over short or long distances, could occur seasonally or generationally, and could involve both small and large groups. While archaeologists have theorized mobility in a variety of ways, they have not developed a robust body of methods for measuring and comparing mobility between households at the intrasite or intersite level. This paper uses architectural and archaeobotanical datasets to create indices of residential mobility. We apply these indices to sites within the Western Puerco Region of East-Central Arizona and West-Central New Mexico dating between Basketmaker II and Pueblo III (500 BC – AD 1300) to explore long-term trends in mobility. In addition, we discuss the degree of congruence and discrepancy between the indices developed using architectural and paleoethonobotanical data. The research has relevance for research on architecture and residential movement more broadly.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Architectural Studies in the U.S. Southwest: Theory, Methods, and Data

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15027