Casas Grandes and Its Hinterlands: Prehistoric Regional Organization in Northwest MexicoCasas Grandes, or Paquimé, is one of the most important settlements in the prehistoric North American Southwest. The largest and most complex community in the Puebloan world, it was characterized by its principal excavator, Charles Di Peso, as an outpost of the Toltec empire, which used it as a trade link between Mesoamerican and southwestern cultures. Michael E. Whalen and Paul E. Minnis have worked extensively in the Casas Grandes area and now offer new research arguing that it was not as similar to the highly developed complex societies of Mesoamerica as has been thought. In the first book of its kind in 25 years, the authors analyze settlement pattern data from more than 300 communities in the area surrounding Casas Grandes to show that its Medio period culture was a local development. Whalen and Minnis propose that Casas Grandes lacked extensive stratification, well-established decision-making hierarchies, and formalized positions of authority. They suggest instead that emerging elites used bribes, promises, and threats to build factions and extend their power. The communities at the periphery are shown to have had varying levels of social and economic interaction with Casas Grandes. This innovative study offers a new model for the rise and fall of Casas Grandes that departs considerably from the view most scholars have come to accept and will be of interest to all concerned with the comparative study of emergent complexity. It clearly shows that the idea of extensive regional centralization by Casas Grandes is no longer tenable and merits reconsideration by the archaeological community. |
Contents
COMPLEX Societies and REGIONAL SYSTEMS | 3 |
Assessing Organizational Structure in Prehistory | 18 |
THE Development of the Casas GranDES CONCEPT | 25 |
Copyright | |
10 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Agua Zarca Alamito cluster architecture argued Arroyo artifact aviculture ball courts cage door stones Carretas Casas Grandes regional Casas Grandes River center of Casas central ceramic ceramic assemblages chapter core zone Cuervo culture discussion drainage El Cuervo elite excavated features and facilities figure hierarchy Hohokam Inner and Middle Inner Zone settlements intensive survey large ovens large settlements log-normal lower Casas Grandes Medio period room Medio period settlements Medio settlements ments Mesoamerican Mexico Middle Zone settlements Mimbres northwest Chihuahua northwestern Chihuahua observed Paquimé percent period room block periphery Peso Peso's platform mounds pochteca political Polychrome population prehistoric primate center production pueblos rank-size distributions reconnaissance Río San Pedro ritual room block mounds San Pedro San Pedro River settlement pattern settlement system shell sherds shows Sierra Madre southwestern United sq km structure surface survey zone Tapicitas Tinaja tion U.S. Southwest upland Viejo period Viejo sites Whalen and Minnis Zone's