Migration, skill, and the transformation of social networks in the pre‐Hispanic Southwest

Abstract

Migration restructures interaction at different social and spatial scales and has the potential to create deep and lasting inequalities between migrants and hosts. But migrants may also create relationships that mediate inequalities and assume positions of power. We examine how migration restructured social relationships in the late pre-Hispanic U.S. Southwest and argue that skilled migrant potters were responsible for both technological innovation and the success of migrants in their new homes. The Southwest has well-documented examples of a diaspora from northeastern Arizona to destinations to the south. Using social network analyses conducted by the Southwest Social Networks Project, we investigate the position of migrant settlements vis-à-vis their hosts. Migration transformed social networks from AD 1200 to 1450 as newcomers became increasingly central by maintaining relationships through bonds of shared heritage and creating social positions for themselves within host communities. Comparison of early and late periods shows how migrants were initially weakly tied to their hosts, which led to stronger ties in a significant portion of the Southwest. These ties indicate widespread interactions characteristic of a social movement. Skilled migrants innovated the production of ceramics that became highly valued in their respective destinations, showing how technological transformations, migration, and skill intersected.

Valuing the ubiquitous: Resource availability and landscape value among the Classic period Maya of western Belize

“…While labor was previously discussed as an important component in determining value, producer skill is also an important component in value (e.g., Helms 1993, 14; King 2016, 450, 454; McAnany 2010, 211–13; Mills, Clark, and Peeples 2016). Skill includes the knowledge and ability required to manufacture an object (Bamforth and Finlay 2008; Mills, Clark, and Peeples 2016, 205–6). Ethnographically, perceived skill makes items more valuable to consumers (Grasseni 2005; Pratt 2007).…”

Understanding the significance of migrants’ material culture

“…Objects allow migrants to integrate themselves into new social networks while still maintaining connections to their previous communities. Social Network Analysis can model the appearance and/or disappearance of certain types of objects from regions as people migrated in or out, especially as migrants worked to carve out their own social and economic niches in their new homes (Habiba et al., 2018; Mills et al., 2016). They could market their skills in pottery manufacture, weaving, farming, and other craft production to elevate their status in new aggregated or blended communities.…”

“…They could market their skills in pottery manufacture, weaving, farming, and other craft production to elevate their status in new aggregated or blended communities. The descendants of the initial migrants could build on those networks, thus integrating themselves into key positions within the social structure of host communities (Mills et al., 2016).…”

Social Network Analysis in Archaeology

“…These overarching theories provide models of how relational worlds work. They have been applied to a wide range of archaeological research questions, including the diffusion of innovations (e.g., Kandler & Caccioli 2016;Östborn & Gerding 2015Östborn & Gerding , 2016, religious and other social movements (Borck & Mills 2017;Collar 2007Collar , 2013aPeeples 2011Peeples , 2018, identity (Blake 2013(Blake , 2014bHart & Englebrecht 2012;Peeples 2011Peeples , 2018, migration (Mills et al 2013a(Mills et al ,b, 2015(Mills et al , 2016, and political centralization and the development of hierarchies (Fulminante 2012, Mizoguchi 2009. Each research question requires that the choice of nodes and ties between them be matched to the network question as discussed below.…”