Political Water: Hohokam Irrigation and Sociopolitical Organization in Canal System 2, Lower Salt River Valley, Central Arizona

Summary

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

Since the publishing of Irrigation Communities: A Comparative Study in 1955, sociopolitical hierarchy has factored strongly in interpretations of irrigation system control. A lively debate has developed as to where control lies, ranging from a central authority (top-down) to water user cooperatives (bottom-up). Although Hohokam irrigation has appeared in that debate, theoretical interpretation in the Phoenix Basin has not kept pace. Interpretations heavily influenced by chiefdoms literature led to a purported disconnect between the development of Hohokam irrigation and society. Hohokam irrigation was characterized as persisting through time, while several significant sociocultural transitions are noted, especially in the lower Salt River Valley portion of the Phoenix Basin. In this paper, I argue that previous hierarchical control models of Hohokam irrigation appear unsubstantiated. Using Canal System 2 as a point of entry, I reevaluate current models with decades of excavation data from the system and contemporary irrigation theory. With attention given to agricultural surplus, the necessity of hierarchy in irrigation, and platform mounds as markers of irrigation control, a revised structure of Canal System 2 comes into focus. I find that the organization of irrigation and the associated community in Canal System 2 was multidimensional, rather than a nested hierarchy.

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): 32645