Population Aggregation in the Prehistoric North American Southwest

1996 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 597-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy A. Kohler ◽  
Lynne Sebastian
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
North American ◽  
Demographic Factors ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Mesa Verde ◽  
Ancestral Puebloan ◽  
Population Aggregation ◽  
North American Southwest

We attempt to clarify the role of demographic factors (size, density, history, and trajectory) in aggregation in the ancestral Puebloan Southwest, which we found obscure in Leonard and Reed (1993). In addition, we question one of the case studies from Chaco Canyon that they used to support their model, and we suggest that data from the Mesa Verde region between A.D. 700 and 1300 argue against the generality of their explanation for aggregation.

Population Aggregation in the Prehistoric American Southwest: A Selectionist Model

1993 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 648-661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert D. Leonard ◽  
Heidi E. Reed
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
The North ◽  
Population Aggregation ◽  
Population Dispersion ◽  
Production Labor ◽  
North American Southwest

The settlement practices of the prehistoric Anasazi of the North American Southwest exhibited shifts from the occupation of dispersed settlements to aggregated villages in many locales both concurrently and at different times. Explaining the nature and timing of these shifts has long been a focus of interest to researchers working in the Southwest. We present a model that outlines the relations among population growth, population dispersion and aggregation, regional abandonments, the nature of specialized systems of production, labor organization, climatic change, and the role of natural selection in producing evolutionary explanations. We offer the hypothesis that aggregation is the product of changes in the organization of corporate labor related to the stabilization of specialized strategies of resource production in response to changes in environmental conditions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document