Aggregation and Exchange Networks: The Case Study from the Central Mesa Verde Region

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Thinking of Acronyms: a Kohler Obsession? Papers in Honor of Timothy A. Kohler (TAKO)" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

As population density increases throughout the Holocene, people tend to expand their mobility strategies to acquire necessary resources (e.g., food, raw materials, mating opportunities, etc.). This is a common perception of human behavior globally; however, archaeological records, particularly lithic data from the central Mesa Verde region of the American Southwest, do not support this hypothesis for local populations in the A.D. 1200s. Instead, as population density increased, human mobility as seen in the nonlocal materials became restricted within each community. This phenomenon is rare in human history and is likely associated with the development of land-tenure systems (Kohler 1992) and/or territoriality. This paper investigates the relationship between population aggregation and exchange networks by compiling artifact data (mostly non-local items) from the central Mesa Verde region to determine whether this phenomenon is uniquely reflected in lithics or if it is an isolated incident not supported by other artifact data.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Thinking of Acronyms: a Kohler Obsession? Papers in Honor of Timothy A. Kohler (TAKO)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51892