Protohistoric Zuni Social and Political Organization

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9318701 Kintigh With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Keith Kintigh will analyze museum collections and associated documentation located in institutions in New York city, Boston and Cambridge England.. These data will be integrated with materials in hand and published in a monograph which traces changes in Zuni Native American settlement pattern and social organization between ca. 1240 and 1540 AD. In the late 19th and early 20th century major archaeological excavations were conducted at three prehistoric Zuni towns: Heshotauthla, Halona and Kechipawan. Work proceeded at a scale which would be impossible today and at all sites large areas were exposed. While extensive field notes were taken, at none of the sites were the materials fully analyzed and published and Dr. Kintigh wishes to examine these data and incorporate them into his own broad scale analysis of Zuni prehistory. The Zuni case is particularly significant because the area is one of the very few in the United States where a fertile archaeological record documents 1000 years of cultural continuity with a modern group having a strong traditional culture and rich ethnographic record. The 1240-1540 AD period marks a particularly important interval because during this time Zuni first aggregated into a few large settlements, then relocated into a larger number of planned towns and then finally established the villages which were occupied when Spanish entered the region. Thus this record allows one to trace the development of complex society and the subsequent social shifts which accompanied the change to smaller settlements. The result will contribute to understanding of the underlying processes involved in population aggregation and increasing organizational complexity. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many regional archaeologists. It will also shed new light on the effects of European invasion on Native American peoples. Because la te prehistoric social and political changes throughout the U.S. Southwest appear to be inter-related, a refined understanding of the Zuni situation will benefit broader archaeological inquiries. ***