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Matrilocality, Corporate Strategy, and the Organization of Production in the Chacoan World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Peter N. Peregrine
Peter N. Peregrine*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Lawrence University, 515 E. College Ave., Appleton, WI 54911
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Abstract

Kinship is central to an understanding of sociopolitical organization and the organization of production in Chaco Canyon. Between A.D. 700 and 900, lifeways in the Chacoan world underwent a transformation that reflects the evolution of matrilocal residence. Matrilocal groups became the foundation of a polity based on a corporate political strategy. Matrilocality provided the peoples of the Chaco region a social structure in which women were able to form stable agricultural communities while men were freed to take part in long-distance resource procurement and trade. Leaders mobilized goods from across the polity for corporate-affirming activities, such as construction of great houses. This corporate strategy is evident in an examination of turquoise production. The production of turquoise ornaments was diffuse and uncontrolled, but the consumption of turquoise, at least in Chaco Canyon, was highly centralized. This is what we would expect to see in a polity operating within a corporate strategy.

Résumé

Résumé

El parentesco es central para entender la organizatión socio-político y la organizatión de produción en Cañón Chaco. Entre d.C. 700 y 900 la manera de vida en el mundo Chaqueño se cambió reflejando la evolutión de la residencia matrilocal. Los grupos matrilocales convenieron la fundación de una región politico basada en una estrategía política corporativa. La matrilocalidad suministró a la gente Chaqueñas una estructura social en que las mujeres fueron capaz aformar comunidades agriculturales estables mientras los hombres fueron libres a conseguir recursos y hacer negócios de larga-distancia. Los líderes mobilizaron recursos al través de la región política para actividades corportiva-afirmando, como la construción de las Casas Grandes. Esta estrategia es evidente en una investigatión de la produción turquesa. Los ornamentos turquesos fueron fabricados por familias quien especializaron en la produción artistica pero la produción fue difusa y incontrolada. Sin embargo la consunción de turquesa fue altamente especializada, al menos entre Cañón Chaco. Eso es precisamente que esperaríamos ver en una region politica funcionando entre una estrategia corporativa.

Type
Special Section
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 66 , Issue 1 , January 2001 , pp. 36 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2001

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