An Evaluation of Virgin Branch Social and Political Complexity through Painted Ceramic Design and Style
Author(s): Daniel Perez
Year: 2024
Summary
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology of the Virgin Branch Puebloan Region" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Social complexity in prehispanic societies within the North American Southwest has been studied through a variety of research avenues. Among the Virgin Branch people within the Moapa Valley of southern Nevada, archaeologists have pursued this topic through the study of architecture, burials and associated grave goods, and exchange networks. Among Virgin Branch archaeologists working in the Moapa Valley has been the competing notion of whether Virgin Branch society was egalitarian (Lyneis 1992) or ranked (Rafferty 1990). This study revisits this long dormant debate through the lens of a research medium not previously used to explore the nature of Virgin Branch social complexity—namely, painted design and style complexity on pottery. Inspired by a cross-cultural study conducted by Peter Peregrine (2007), this paper presents an exploratory assessment of Virgin Branch social complexity, through an adaptation of Peregrine’s (2007) methods, using painted ceramics recovered from Adam 2 and the Main Ridge community. This study uses a comparative statistical approach to evaluate social complexity at Adam 2 and the Main Ridge community against Peregrine’s (2007) findings as a means of assessing the utility of this analytical approach to the study of social complexity in the Virgin Branch region.
Cite this Record
An Evaluation of Virgin Branch Social and Political Complexity through Painted Ceramic Design and Style. Daniel Perez. Presented at The 89th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2024 ( tDAR id: 499034)
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Keywords
Geographic Keywords
North America: Southwest United States
Spatial Coverage
min long: -124.365; min lat: 25.958 ; max long: -93.428; max lat: 41.902 ;
Record Identifiers
Abstract Id(s): 39108.0