The Economic, Social, and Political Reorganization of Late Prehistoric Pueblo Communities in the Silver Creek Area, Arizona

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With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Barbara Mills and her colleagues will conduct two field seasons of archaeological research at sites located in the Silver Creek region of Arizona. Archaeologists believe that this area marks the location of significant and far-reaching changes during the late prehistoric period in the American Southwest. There is strong evidence from settlement pattern data to support the idea that large groups of peoples moved into the region between 1000 and 1400 AD. The region therefore has the potential to shed light on the causes and consequences of population reorganization, including the processes of migration, aggregation, integration and dispersion. Relatively little archaeological research however has been conducted, and Dr. Mills' work will remedy this situation. Over the course of two field seasons she will excavate three sites representing different time periods between the 11th and 14th centuries. She will collect ceramic and tree ring samples to refine chronology. She will examine demographic trends and note changes in social and economic organization. She will also compare and synthesize cultural and paleoenvironmental data. The membership of small-scale agricultural societies throughout the world is often fluid as individuals, households, groups of households and even whole communities change residences. These moves vary in their causes, the distances moved, their permanence and ultimately in their effects. In some cases new residential sites are colonized through village fissioning and connections are maintained with the original villages through extension of existing social networks. In other cases, portions of the population are incorporated into preexisting communities and social, political and religious institutions established or extended to integrate the host and migrant populations. In both cases, changes in integrative mechanisms may ensue. Understanding changes in community organization, especially those processes relating to community integration is a key to understanding wider economic, social and political changes. Dr. Mills Silver Creek study provides an excellent opportunity to study these processes over an extended period of time. This research is important for several reasons. It will shed new light on the prehistory of the United States and provide data of interest to many archaeologists. Given the fluidity of populations in today's world, the work will increase our understanding of how new social entities emerge and are maintained.