Explaining Socially Determined Ceramic Distributions in the Prehistoric Plateau Southwest

Abstract

We examine the process of political development in relation to selected social and economic variables in the plateau region of the American Southwest. We argue that political development was closely associated with strategies of agricultural intensification, surplus production, changes in the organization and management of labor, and expanding regional exchange. We draw supporting data from several settlement systems and attempt to demonstrate that both exotic and labor-intensive commodities were restricted to political and economic centers. We then examine the distribution of one category of these materials, ceramics, through application of the "production step" measure. Our analysis suggests that access to highly decorated ceramic items was restricted to individuals residing at the largest centers. Traditional interpretations of the political organization of plateau region prehistoric groups stress their egalitarian qualities. We suggest that such interpretations be re-examined in the light of data and arguments presented here.

Growth and Aggregation at Canyon Creek Ruin: Implications for Evolutionary Change in East-Central Arizona

“…The appearance of large pueblo communities in east-central Arizona after A.D. 1275 is associated with two related developments: (1) communities were linked economically with other communities by exchange (as well as by other relationships), and (2) clusters of communities were linked together within spatial boundaries at the regional level (cf. Cordell and Plog 1979;Plog 1979:122;Plog 1980aPlog :126-133, 1980bTuggle 1970;Upham et al 1981;Wilcox 1981:234-235). It appears then that within and between regions community interdependence and regional symbiosis emerged, both organized by economic relations, and the latter promoted by social factors (Graves et al 1982a(Graves et al , 1982b.…”

“…Most of these regions, but especially those in the mountains, show dramatic population expansion after A.D. 1300, and yet the degree of sociopolitical complexity apparently varied from one region to another (a function, perhaps, of the rate of population expansion). Elite control of production and exchange is, at best, only weakly developed in the Grasshopper region (Graves 1982b;Graves et al 1982aGraves et al , 1982bWhittlesey 1978), whereas it was apparently emerging in the area surrounding Chavez Pass (Cordell and Plog 1979;Upham et al 1981).…”

Analyzing and interpreting ceramic production and distribution in the American southwest

“…Plog 1983;S. Plog 1980;Upham 1982;Upham et al 1981;Upham and F. Plog 1985) developing new models for prehistoric socio-political organization in the American Southwest that apply, in part, to ceramic distributional data. While most archaeologists have found support for Shepard's earlier views suggesting increasing and sometimes substantial exchange of pottery between settlements and to some extent, among regions in the puebloan Southwest, they often differ in a number of respects.…”

The history of method and theory in the study of prehistoric puebloan pottery style in the American Southwest

“…Larger social networks and increased ceramic exchange were also implicated by S. Plog (1980) in the symbolic use of ceramic decoration for social group identification. Others (Cordell and Plog, 1979;Upham, 1982;Upham et al, 1981) have argued for elite control over the distribution of the most highly decorated forms of pottery. The interpretation that puebloan groups employed ceramic stylistic traits as a basis for information transmission is a direct outgrowth of Wobst's (1977) model of material culture style as being meaningfully constituted and functional (i.e., cultural).…”

“…Such distinctions, it has been argued (Cordell and Plog, 1979, p. 417), were advantageous wherever large alliance networks and greater competition between social groups emerged under conditions of decreased mobility, greater population density, and environmental uncertainty. Variation in ceramic stylistic attributes and similarity among painted pottery from different regions in the puebloan area was also employed to identify larger-scaled geographic units such as provinces (F. Plog, 1979 and potentially more complex sociopolitical relationships known as alliances (F. Upham, 1982;Upham et al, 1981Upham et al, , 1994. Larger social networks and increased ceramic exchange were also implicated by S. Plog (1980) in the symbolic use of ceramic decoration for social group identification.…”