Complexity, Rituality, and the Origins of Paquimé (Casas Grandes), Chihuahua

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeological investigations in the prehispanic American Southwest/Northwest Mexico region have provided rich insight into the development of sociopolitically complex polities in the Phoenix Basin, Chaco Canyon, Rio Grande valley, and northwestern Chihuahua. In all of these places, sociopolitical complexity is linked to the development of and elite control over key ritual practices and spaces. One of these locations, Paquimé (also called Casas Grandes located in northwestern Chihuahua) has received far less discourse, even though it was one of the largest and most socially complex sites in the region. Over the past two decades, several competing models relating complexity at Paquimé to forms of ritual practice have been proposed yet limited independent evaluation has occurred. In this paper, I assess these models and investigate supporting data to address three research questions: when did rituality and complexity become integrally tied in Casas Grandes society?, are there specific ritualized spaces indicative of this linkage?, and what were the outcomes of this process for the broader populace? The investigation of these questions evaluates conflicting hypotheses, enables a more accurate understanding of how Paquimé developed, and poses productive avenues for future investigations in prehispanic Southwest complexity.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32102