Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T07:44:29.174Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mortuary Features and Identity Construction in an Early Village Community in the American Southwest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

James M. Potter  and
Elizabeth M. Perry
James M. Potter
Affiliation:
PaleoWest Archaeology, 2460 W. 26th Avenue, Suite 15C, Denver, Colorado 80211 (jpotter@paleowest.com)
Elizabeth M. Perry
Affiliation:
SWCA Environmental Consultants, 434 NW Sixth Avenue, Suite 304, Portland, Oregon, 97209 (eperry @ swca.com)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this paper we examine some of the relationships among mortuary features, individual identities, and group identities in the context of the Ridges Basin community, one of the earliest village communities in the American Southwest. Architectural and biodistance data suggest that more than one ethnic group composed the Ridges Basin Pueblo I community and that these groups occupied different house clusters throughout the basin. Mortuary data are examined for patterning in body arrangement, context of interment, and treatment to corroborate the presence of different groups within this community. Results indicate that groups and individuals performed mortuary rituals and incorporated particular rare and exotic items that aided in the construction of personal identities, particularly gendered identities, and that ultimately came to represent and reify group distinctions. It is suggested that, in early villages, elaborations of both gender and ethnicity in mortuary contexts provided accessible and highly visible and noticeable avenues of distinction in the absence of formally instituted leadership and group identity categories.

Resumen

Resumen

En éste artículo examinamos las relaciones entre rasgos mortuorios, identidades individuales, e identidades comunales en el contexto de la comunidad prehispánica de Ridges Basin, una de las comunidades aldeanas más tempranas dei Sudoeste Norteamericano. Datos de arquitectura y biodistancia indican que Ia comunidad de Ridges Basin en la época Pueblo I comprendia múltiples grupos étnicos y que estos grupos ocupaban diversos áreas habitacionales dentro del área de estudio. Se examinan datos mortuorios con el fin de identificar padrone s de posición del cuerpo, contexto, y tratamiento, y los resultados corroboran Ia presencia de diversos grupos étnicos en la comunidad. Resulta que grupos e individuales realizaban ritos mortuorios e utilizaban objetos valiosos e exóticos en la construcción de identidades personales, particularmente identidades de género. Estos bienes ultimament llegaron a representar y reificar distinciones entre diversos grupos. Sugerimos que en aldeas tempranas Ia elaboración de género y de etnicidad en contextos mortuorios representaba una posibilidad de distinción social muy accesible, visible, y notable en la ausencia de instituciones de liderazgo formalmente instituido o de identidades comunales bien establecidas.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 76 , Issue 3 , July 2011 , pp. 529 - 546
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Allison, James R. 2008 Exchanging Identities: Early Pueblo 1 Red Ware Exchange and Identity North of the San Juan River. In The Social Construction of Communities: Structure, Agency, and Identity in Prehispanic Southwest, edited by Mark D. Varien and James M. Potter, pp. 41–68. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, California.Google Scholar
Anderson, Kirk C. 2008a Ridges Basin Soil Fertility—Implications for Prehistoric Agriculture. In Animas–La Plata Project: Environmental Studies, edited by James M. Potter, pp. 63–80. SWCA Anthropological Research Papers No 10, Vol. X. SWCA Environmental Consultants, Phoenix, Arizona.Google Scholar
Anderson, Kirk C. 2008b Landscape Change and Stability in Ridges Basin—Implications for Pueblo I Habitation. In Animas–La Plata Project: Environmental Studies, edited by James M. Potter, pp. 33–62. SWCA Anthropological Research Papers No 10, Vol. X. SWCA Environmental Consultants, Phoenix, Arizona.Google Scholar
Bandy, Matthew S., and Fox, Jake R. (editors) 2010 Becoming Villagers: Comparing Early Village Societies. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Brew, John O. 1946 Archaeology of Alkali Ridge, Southeastern Utah. Papers of the Peabody Museum, Vol. 21. Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Carlson, Roy L. 1963 Basket Maker III Sites Near Durango, Colorado. University of Colorado Studies Series in Anthropology No. 8. University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.Google Scholar
Carr, Christopher 1995 Mortuary Practices: Their Social, Philosophical-Religious, Circumstantial, and Physical Determinants. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 2(2): 105–200.Google Scholar
Chuipka, Jason P. 2008 Exploring Village Organization in the Northern San Juan Region of the American Southwest, A.D. 750–840. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Chuipka, Jason P. 2009a Exploring Ethnic Diversity and Sociopolitical Strategies of Early Pueblo I Villages in the Northern San Juan Region, A.D. 750–840. In Animas-La Plata Project: Special Studies, edited by James M. Potter, pp. 43–84. SWCA Anthropological Research Papers No. 10, Vol. XIII. SWCA Environmental Consultants, Phoenix, Arizona.Google Scholar
Chuipka, Jason P. 2009b Animas-La Plata Project: Ridges Basin Excavations–The Sacred Ridge Site. SWCA Anthropological Research Papers No. 10, Vol. XII. SWCA Environmental Consultants, Phoenix, Arizona.Google Scholar
Cushing, Frank Hamilton 1992 The Mythic World of the Zuni. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Díaz-Andreu, Margarita, and Lucy, Sam 2005 Introduction. In The Archaeology of Identity: Approaches to Gender, Age, Status, Ethnicity, and Religion. edited by M. Díaz-Andreu, S. Lucy, S Babi_, and D. Edwards, pp. 1–12. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Douglas, Miehele T, and Stodder, Ann L.W. 2010 Skull Morphology in the ALP Skeletal Series. In Animas-La Plata Project: Bioarchaeology, edited by Elizabeth M. Perry, 197–222. SWCA Anthropological Research Papers No. 10, Vol. XV. SWCA Environmental Consultants. Phoenix, Arizona.Google Scholar
Eddy, Frank W. 1966 Prehistory in the Navajo Reservoir District, North-western New Mexico. Museum of New Mexico Papers in Anthropology Number 15, Part I. Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Eisenhauer, Nancy, Lowe, Mark, Hensier, Vern H., Adams, Karen R., Murray, Shawn S., and Perry, Elizabeth M. 2008 5LP237. In Animas—La Plata Project: Ridges Basin Excavations—North-central Sites, edited by James M. Potter and Thomas D. Yoder, pp. 201–249. SWCA Anthropological Research Papers No. 10, Vol. VII. SWCA Environmental Consultants, Phoenix, Arizona.Google Scholar
Ezzo, Joseph A. 2008 Managerial Elite, Community Leader, or Just a Good Ol’ Boy: Metaphor and Identity of Burial 140 at Grasshopper Pueblo, Arizona. Paper presented in the symposium “Beyond Status: Meaning, Metaphor, and Identity in the New World Mortuary Record,” at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver, British Columbia.Google Scholar
Fritz, Noreen R., and Honeycutt, Linda 2003 5LP379. In The Rocky Mountain Expansion Loop Pipeline Data Recovery Project, Volume 3: Colorado Technical Site Reports, compiled by Jonathan C. Horn, Jerry Fetterman, and Linda Honeycutt, pp. 3–1–3–47. Woods Canyon Archaeological Consultants, Inc., Yellowjacket, Colorado.Google Scholar
Fuller, Steven L. 1988 Archaeological Investigations in the Bodo Canyon Area, La Plata County, Colorado. UMTRA Archaeological Report 25. Complete Archaeological Service Associates, Cortez, Colorado.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Lynne G. 1976 Spatial Structure and Social Organization: Regional Manifestations of Mississippi Society. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.Google Scholar
Hayes, Alden C., and Lancaster, James A. 1975 Badger House Community, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Washington D.C.Google Scholar
Levine, H. B. 1999 Reconstructing Ethnicity. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 5(2): 165–180.Google Scholar
Lightfoot, Ricky R. 1988 Roofing an Early Anasazi Great Kiva: Analysis of an Architectural Model. Kiva 53:253–272.Google Scholar
Lightfoot, Ricky R., and Etzkorn, Mary C. (editors) 1993 The Duckfoot Site, Vol. 1: Descriptive Archaeology. Occasional Paper No. 3, Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, Colorado.Google Scholar
Lucy, Sam 2005 Ethnic and Cultural Identities. In The Archaeology of Identity: Approaches to Gender, Age, Status, Ethnicity, and Religion, edited by M. Díaz-Andreu, S. Lucy, S Babi_, and D. Edwards, pp. 86–109. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
McClelland, John 2010 Dental Biodistance. In Animas–La Plata Project: Bioarchaeology Studies, edited by Elizabeth M. Perry. SWCA Anthropological Research Papers No. 10, Vol. XV. SWCA Environmental Consultants, Phoenix, Arizona, in press.Google Scholar
Meggitt, Mervyn J. 1965 The Mae Enga of the Western Highlands. In Gods, Ghosts and Men in Melanesia: Some Religions of Australia, New Guinea, and the New Hebrides, edited by P. Lawrence, and M.J. Meggitt, pp. 105–131. Oxford University Press, London Google Scholar
Morris, Earl H. 1939 Archaeological Studies in the La Plata District, Southwestern Colorado and Northwestern New Mexico. Publication No. 519. Carnegie Institute, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Parsons, Elsie Clews 1929 The Social Organization of the Tewa of New Mexico. Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association 36, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Pearson, Mike P. 2003 The Archaeology of Death and Burial. Sutton Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, England.Google Scholar
Perry, Elizabeth M. 2004 Bioarchaeology of Labor and Gender in the Prehispanic American Southwest. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology. University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Perry, Elizabeth M., and Potter, James M. 2006 Materiality and Social Change in the Practice of Feminist Anthropology. In Feminist Anthropology: Past, Present, and Future, edited by Pamela L. Geller and Miranda K. Stockett, pp. 115–125. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Potter, James M. 2008 Summary. In Animas–La Plata Project: Ridges Basin Excavations—North-central Sites, edited by James M. Potter, pp. 311–321. SWCA Anthropological Research Papers No. 10, Vol. VII. SWCA Environmental Consultants, Phoenix, Arizona.Google Scholar
Potter, James M. 2009 Hunting and Early Pueblo Cuisine: Faunal Patterns among Early Villages in the Northern Southwest. In Animas-La Plata Project: Special Studies, edited by James M. Potter, pp. 191–214. SWCA Anthropological Research Papers No. 10, Vol. XIII. SWCA Environmental Consultants, Phoenix, Arizona.Google Scholar
Potter, James M. 2010 Mortuary Features in Ridges Basin. In Animas-La Plata Project: Bioarchaeology, edited by Elizabeth M. Perry, pp. 15–50. SWCA Anthropological Research Papers No. 10, Vol. XV SWCA Environmental Consultants, Phoenix.Google Scholar
Potter, James M., and Chuipka, Jason P. 2007 Early Pueblo Communities and Cultural Diversity in the Durango Area: Preliminary Results from the Animas-La Plata Project. Kiva 72:407–430 Google Scholar
Potter, James M., and Edwards, Josh S. 2008 Vertebrate Faunal Remains. In Animas-La Plata Project: Environmental Studies, edited by James M. Potter, pp. 243–285. SWCA Anthropological Research Papers No. 10, Vol. X. SWCA Environmental Consultants, Phoenix, Arizona.Google Scholar
Potter, James M., and Ortman, Scott G. 2004 Community and Cuisine in the Prehispanic American Southwest. In Identity, Feasting, and the Archaeology of the Greater Southwest, edited by Barbara J. Mills, pp. 173–191. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Potter, James M., and Yoder, Thomas D. (editors) 2008a Animas-La Plata Project: Ridges Basin Excavations–North-central Sites. SWCA Anthropological Research Papers No. 10, Vol. VII. SWCA Environmental Consultants, Phoenix, Arizona.Google Scholar
Potter, James M., and Yoder, Thomas D. (editors) 2008b Animas–La Plata Project: Ridges Basin Excavations–Western Basin Sites. SWCA Anthropological Research Papers No. 10, Vol. VIII. SWCA Environmental Consultants, Phoenix, Arizona.Google Scholar
Potter, James M., and Yoder, Thomas D. 2008 Space, Houses, and Bodies: Identity Construction and Destruction in an Early Pueblo Village. In The Social Construction of Communities: Agency, Structure, and Identity in the Prehispanic Southwest, edited by Mark Varien and James Potter, pp. 21–40. AltaMira Press, Lanham, Maryland.Google Scholar
Railey, Jim A. 2009 Pueblo I Flaked Stone Patterns. In Animas-La Plata Project: Lithic Studies, by Jim A. Railey and Alexander L. Wesson, pp. 39–97. SWCA Anthropological Research Papers No. 10, Vol. XI. SWCA Environmental Consultants, Phoenix, Arizona.Google Scholar
Root, Homer 1966 Notes on file with Center for Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado.Google Scholar
Saxe, A. 1970 Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Schachner, Gregson 2001 Ritual Control and Transformation in Middle-Range Societies: An Example from the American Southwest. Journal of American Archaeology 20:168–194.Google Scholar
Stodder, Ann L.W. 1987 The Physical Anthropology and Mortuary Practice of the Dolores Anasazi: An Early Pueblo Population in Local and Regional Context. In Dolores Archaeology Program: Supporting Studies: Settlement and Environment, compiled by K. L. Peterson and J. Orcutt, pp. 339–506. Bureau of Reclamation, Denver, Colorado.Google Scholar
Stodder, Ann L.W. 2010 Isolated Human Remains. In Animas-La Plata Project: Bioarchaeology, edited by Elizabeth M. Perry, pp. 51–66. SWCA Anthropological Research Papers No. 10, Vol. XV. SWCA Environmental Consultants, Phoenix, Arizona,Google Scholar
Tainter, Joseph R. 1978 Mortuary Practices and the Study of Prehistoric Social Systems. Archaeological Method and Theory 1:105–41.Google Scholar
Varien, Mark D., and Potter, James M. (editors) 2008 The Social Construction of Communities: Agency, Structure, and Identity in the Prehispanic Southwest. AltaMira Press, Lanham, Maryland.Google Scholar
Wilshusen, Richard H. 1989 Unstuffing the Estufa: Ritual Floor Features in Anasazi Pit Structures and Pueblo Kivas. In The Architecture of Social Integration in Prehistoric Pueblos, edited by William D. Lipe and Michelle Hegmon, pp. 89–111. Occasional Papers, no. 1. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, Colorado.Google Scholar
Wilshusen, Richard H. 1999 Pueblo I (A.D. 750–900). In Colorado Prehistory: A Context for the Southern Colorado River Basin, edited by William D. Lipe, Mark D. Varien, and Richard H. Wilshusen, pp. 196–241. Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologists, Denver, Colorado.Google Scholar
Wilshusen, Richard H., and Ortman, Scott G. 1999 Rethinking the Pueblo I Period in the San Juan Drainage: Aggregation, Migration, and Cultural Diversity. Kiva 64:369–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilshusen, Richard H., and Potter, James M. 2010 The Emergence of Early Villages in the American Southwest: Cultural Issues and Historical Perspectives. In Becoming Villagers, edited by Matthew S. Bandy and Jake R. Fox. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, in press.Google Scholar
Yoder, Thomas D., and Potter, James M. (editors) 2007 Animas–La Plata Project: Ridges Basin Excavations–Eastern Basin Sites. SWCA Anthropological Research Papers No. 10, Vol. IV. SWCA Environmental Consultants, Phoenix, Arizona.Google Scholar