Networks of Power in the Chaco World: Practices, Institutions, and Ideologies of Collective Action

Summary

This is an abstract from the "States, Confederacies, and Nations: Reenvisioning Early Large-Scale Collectives." session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In 2006, Lynne Sebastian synthesized political models used for Chaco society and argued that past interpretations were too heavily reliant on outdated models that stressed hierarchy and neo-evolutionary typologies. She especially drew on Susan McIntosh’s (1999) book “Beyond Chiefdoms: Pathways to Complexity in Africa,” and argued that power should be looked at in relational terms and that ‘wealth in people’ rather than material wealth was more important in Chaco’s development. We revisit Sebastian’s argument and the models presented in McIntosh’s volume to make the case for a historical-relational perspective on the Chaco World that includes the networks of practices, institutions, and ideologies through which power was created and used. We focus on three primary institutions: matrilineal households, ritual sodalities, and pan-village alliances or councils that contributed to Chaco’s complex organization. Each of these groups drew on material and immaterial resources to accomplish their goals such as charismatic species, colorful pigments, and long-distance goods that we argue were essential for attracting people. Such an approach opens up the interpretive arena on Chaco governance to include a wider variety of ways in which decision-making and leadership was structured that accounts for large-scale collective action over multiple social and spatial scales.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• States, Confederacies, and Nations: Reenvisioning Early Large-Scale Collectives.   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37835.0