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Economic Support of Chaco Canyon Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Timothy Earle
Timothy Earle*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208-1310
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Abstract

I propose that Chaco Canyon was a chiefdom that emphasized a corporate political strategy (Blanton et al. 1996). Corporate groups define the relationship of people to resources, especially as the owners of productive land. Groups are materialized by public ceremonies and monuments, but leaders are typically faceless. Chaco's famous road system, the elaborate architecture of the great houses, and the regional procurement of specific resources support the proposal that Chaco was a corporate chiefdom. To create and sustain the regional institutions of a chiefdom requires not only leaders, but a system of finance. Chaco is argued to have had a system of staple finance, where surplus food and everyday technologies were mobilized from a broad supporting population. Mobilization was based on control of food production, but the method of control has not yet been defined for Chaco. The exchange of prestige goods, such as turquoise, shell, and copper bells, was not part of the system of finance for Chaco, but was part of an interpersonal and noncentralized reciprocal exchange network such as those found broadly in egalitarian societies.

Résumé

Résumé

Propongo que el Cañón Chaco funcionó como un cacicazgo o señorio que enfatizó una estrategia político y corporativa (Blanton et al. 1996). Grupos corporativos delinean los enlaces entre gentes y sus recursos naturales, especialmente como dueáos de tierras productivas. Dichos grupos toman forma por medio de ceremonias públicas y la construcción de monumentos, pero tipicamente los Uderes son anónimos. La evidencia delfamoso sistema de caminos chaqueños, la arquitectura monumental de las "Casas Grandes", y la obtención regional de recursos especificos sostienen la proposición que Chaco llegó a ser un cacicazgo corporativo. La creación y sostenimiento de las instituciones regionales de un cacicazgo requieren no solo Uderes pero también un sistema financiero. Se propone que en Chaco surgió un sistema financiero de productos básicos, en que los comestibles y las tecnologías cotidianas fueron intercambiadas por un mantenimiento de población muy extenso. La movilización de estos recursos fue basada en el control de la producción de alimentos, pero el modo de control todavía no se ha definido para Chaco. El intercambio de artículos prestigiosos, como turquesa, caracol, cascabeles de cobre, no fue parte del sistema financiero de Chaco, sino que procedío de una red personal y no centralizada de intercambios como unas muy conocidas de sociedades igualitarias.

Type
Special Section
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 66 , Issue 1 , January 2001 , pp. 26 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2001

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