How to Make a Polity (In the Central Mesa Verde Region)

Abstract

The degree to which prehispanic societies in the northern upland Southwest were hierarchical or egalitarian is still debated and seems likely to have changed through time. This paper examines the plausibility of village-spanning polities in the northern Southwest by simulating the coevolution of hierarchy and warfare using extensions to the Village Ecodynamics Project's agent-based model. We additionally compile empirical data on the population size distribution of habitations and ritual spaces (kivas) and the social groups that used them in three large regions of the Pueblo Southwest and analyze these through time. All lines of evidence refute an “autonomous village” model during the Pueblo II period (A.D. 890–1145); rather, they support the existence of village-spanning polities during the Pueblo II and probably into the Pueblo III period (A.D. 1145–1285) in some areas. One or more polities connecting the northern Southwest, with tribute flowing to an apex in Chaco Canyon, appears plausible during Pueblo II for the areas we examine. During Pueblo III, more local organizations likely held sway until depopulation in the late thirteenth century.

Dynamic Communities on the Mesa Verde Cuesta

“…We suggest the organizational shift that occurred between the AD 600–1060 and the AD 1060–1280 periods signals a switch from communities as the largest social grouping to communities as an intermediate social level embedded within polities that included several communities. Our results follow, though they are slightly delayed relative to results from the simulation of polity formation in the VEP I study area—directly adjacent to but northwest of the cuesta—reported by Crabtree and colleagues (2017). From AD 600 to 980, the territory sizes of polities modeled by Crabtree and colleagues were log-normal in distribution, which is expected when territory size was not disproportionately advantageous for further growth.…”

Trade, migration, and the dynamics of spatial interaction

“…When migration costs are low relative to resource transport, the model predicts fan-shaped compound catchments arising not from centralization around the target settlement but competition with other neighboring settlements, a situation visible in the settlement patterns of central Mexico (Hirth 1978). In general, it appears that the configuration of resource flows into settlements directly influences the emergent spatial and social structure (Crabtree et al 2017).…”

A New Kind of Relevance for Archaeology

“…We created time series for interpersonal violence rates, demographic rates and hunting pressure on wild game (Johnson et al, 2005;Kohler et al, 2008Kohler et al, , 2009Kohler and Reese, 2014), and we reconstructed patterns of settlement, community organization and migration into and out of our study areas (Glowacki and Ortman, 2012;Ortman, 2012;Glowacki, 2015;Kemp et al, 2017). Finally, we developed agent-based models that provide robust null models for assessing the effects of climate for demographic rates and social organization (Kohler, 2012;Kohler et al, 2012a;Crabtree et al, 2017).…”