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Hierarchy and Heterarchy in the American Southwest: A Comment on Mcguire and Saitta

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Alison E. Rautman
Alison E. Rautman*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824
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Abstract

McGuire and Saitta (1996) give voice to widespread dissatisfaction with artificial dichotomies that lead to the classification of historic and late Prehispanic puebloan societies as “egalitarian” or “hierarchical” in organization. They suggest a solution, a dialectical approach, that rejects processual archaeology in general, although not in its entirety. Another alternative approach, proposed here, relies on the concept of heterarchy (e.g., Crumley 1994), which, surprisingly, has not yet been used in southwestern archaeology. The proposed use of this concept does not involve rejection of a processual framework or represent a comprehensive critique of McGuire and Saitta's proposed dialectical approach.

Résumé

Résumé

McGuire y Saitta (1996) han expresado insatisfacción con dicotomías artificiales que han dado lugar a la clasificación de la organización de sociedades Pueblo históricas y prehispánicas tardías como “iugalitarias” o “jerdrquicas.” Estos autores sugieren, como solucion, un acercamiento diaUctico que en general rechaza la arqueología procesual, mas no en su totalidad. Una alternativa, la cual aquí presentamos, se basa en el concepto de “heteraquía” (e.g., Crumley 1994), que, sorprendentemente, aún no se ha aplicado a la arqueología del suroeste norteamericano. El uso de este concepto, que aqui proponemos, no implica el rechazo de un marco teórico procesual, ni representa una crítica comprensiva del acercamiento dialéctico propuesto por McGuire y Saitta.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 63 , Issue 2 , April 1998 , pp. 325 - 333
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1998

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