Pottery Production and Ballcourt Ceremonialism: Remarkably Sophisticated Economics Among the Hohokam

在国家科学基金会的支持下，戴维·R·阿博特博士和他的同事们将进行为期21个月的考古研究，重点是异常复杂的经济和古代霍霍卡姆人的地区性仪式网络。霍霍卡姆人是沙漠农夫和工匠，从公元300年到公元1450年，他们居住在亚利桑那州南部和中部的数百个村庄，人口超过200人。在之前由美国国家科学基金会资助的研究中，研究表明，几乎所有在久坐时期(约公元900-1100)使用的陶瓷容器都是由几个人制作的，并广泛分布在大片地区的家庭中。当时显然存在一种有效和可靠的供应机制，但到了随后的古典时期(约公元1100-1375年)，陶瓷生产已恢复到当地生产，供当地消费。这些结果引发了人们的疑问，即霍霍坎史前多长时间以来就有大规模的陶器生产，以及如此多的陶器是如何广泛分布的。一种假说解释了静坐时期陶瓷的分布，可能有周期性的市场，与遍布该地区的225多个棒球场举行的仪式球类运动有关。这些球类比赛吸引了来自周围甚至可能是偏远村庄的人群，可能是专门制作的锅和其他家庭必需品经常被用来交换的场所，超越了亲属网络的限制。这一想法意味着比之前为霍霍坎姆设想的任何经济安排都要复杂得多。为了进一步研究这一思想，将分析殖民地时期(约公元775-90年)、先锋晚期(约公元700-775年)和先锋早期(公元700年前)的陶瓷组合的容器形式和生产来源，以确定每个时期陶瓷生产和分配是如何组织的，并确定霍霍卡姆人之间复杂的陶瓷生产分工持续了多久。它是先于球馆网络的发展，还是平行于球馆网络的发展？球场网络的发展始于拓荒者晚期，在殖民地时期和殖民地时期得到了极大的扩展？这项新的研究还将使用最近的年代修正来确定，向本地化陶瓷生产的转变是否与球馆礼仪制度在接近静坐时期结束时的崩溃是同一时期的。这项研究之所以重要，是因为它有助于建立文化进化理论，并突出了西南地区古代美洲原住民的非凡成就。没有中央控制和等级制度的复杂经济学，使得Hohokam成为将组织复杂性与等级结构联系起来的进化假设的一个有趣的例外。因此，重建他们庞大而复杂的网络是如何发展和运作的，可能是改进文化变革综合理论的关键。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. David R. Abbott and his colleagues will conduct 21 months of archaeological research focused on the unusually complex economy and the regional ceremonial network of the ancient Hohokam people. The Hohokam were desert farmers and craftsmen who inhabited hundreds of villages with populations of 200 residents or more through out southern and central Arizona from ca. A.D. 300 until A.D. 1450. During previous NSF-funded research, it was shown that nearly all ceramic containers used during the Sedentary period (ca. A.D. 900-1100) were made by few hands and were widely distributed to households across a large territory. An efficient and dependable mechanism for supply was clearly extant at that time, but by the succeeding Classic period (ca. A.D. 1100-1375) ceramic production had reverted to local manufacturing for local consumption. Those results evoke questions about how far back into Hohokam prehistory large-scale pottery production was practiced and how so many pots were so widely distributed. One hypothesis explains the Sedentary period ceramic distributions with possible periodic marketplaces associated ritual ball games played in more than 225 ballcourts spread throughout the region. These ball games drew crowds from surrounding and probably distant villages and may have served as venues where specialist-made pots and other domestic necessities were regularly bartered beyond the limits of kinship networks. This idea implies far more sophisticated economic arrangements than any previously supposed for the Hohokam. To further investigate this idea, the vessel forms and production sources of ceramic assemblages from the Colonial (ca. A.D. 775-900), late Pioneer (ca. A.D. 700-775), and early Pioneer (pre-A.D. 700) periods will be analyzed to determine how ceramic production and distribution were organized during each time period and determine for how long the sophisticated division of labor for ceramic production was extant among the Hohokam. Did it precede, parallel, or succeed the development of the ballcourt network, which began during the late Pioneer period and greatly expanded during the Colonial and Sedentary periods? The new research will also use recent chronological refinements to determine if the shift to localized ceramic production was coeval with the collapse of the ballcourt ceremonialism near the end of the Sedentary period. This research is important because it contributes to building cultural evolutionary theory and highlights the remarkable accomplishments of ancient Native American peoples in the Southwest. Sophisticated economics without centrally controlled and hierarchical political institutions make the Hohokam a fascinating exception to evolutionary suppositions that link organizational complexity with hierarchical structures. As such, reconstructing how their large and intricate networks developed and worked may be pivotal for improving synthetic theories of culture change.