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

在美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的支持下，大卫·r·阿博特（David R. Abbott）博士和他的同事们将进行为期21个月的考古研究，重点研究古代霍霍坎人异常复杂的经济和地区礼仪网络。霍霍坎人是沙漠中的农民和工匠，从公元300年到1450年，他们居住在亚利桑那州南部和中部的数百个村庄，人口在200人以上。在之前由美国国家科学基金会资助的研究中，研究表明，在定居时期（约公元900-1100年），几乎所有使用的陶瓷容器都是由少数人制作的，并且在大片领土上广泛分发给家庭。在那个时候，一种有效而可靠的供应机制显然是存在的，但在随后的古典时期（约公元1100-1375年），陶瓷生产已经恢复到当地生产，供当地消费。这些结果引发了关于霍霍坎史前大规模陶器生产的问题，以及如此多的罐子是如何广泛分布的。一种假说解释了定居时期的陶瓷分布，可能与遍布该地区的225多个球场的仪式球类比赛有关。这些球类运动吸引了来自周围和可能遥远村庄的人群，并可能成为专家制造的锅和其他家庭必需品定期交换的场所，超出了亲属网络的限制。这一想法意味着比以往任何对霍霍坎的设想都要复杂得多的经济安排。为了进一步研究这一观点，我们研究了殖民时期（约公元775-900年）、先锋队晚期（约公元700-775年）和先锋队早期（公元前）陶瓷组合的容器形式和生产来源。我们将对陶器的各个时期进行分析，以确定陶器的生产和分配在每个时期是如何组织的，并确定陶器生产的复杂劳动分工在霍霍坎人中存在了多长时间。它是先于、平行还是成功于始于拓荒者后期并在殖民和定居时期得到极大扩展的球场网络的发展？这项新研究还将使用最近的时间顺序改进来确定向本地化陶瓷生产的转变是否与定居时期末期球场仪式的崩溃同时发生。这项研究很重要，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卓越成就。没有中央控制和等级政治制度的复杂经济学使霍霍坎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迷人的例外。因此，重建他们庞大而复杂的网络是如何发展和运作的，可能是改进文化变迁综合理论的关键。

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.