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Complexity, Hierarchy, and Scale: A Controlled Comparison between Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, and La Quemada, Zacatecas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Ben A. Nelson
Ben A. Nelson*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-2402
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Abstract

Archaeologists have held a lengthy debate around the question of complex sociopolitical organización in the prehistoric American Southwest. Recent theory, though, urges scholars to “unpack” the properties of complexity. In this paper a southwestern regional center is compared with one on the northern Mesoamerican periphery in terms of properties generally associated with sociopolitical complexity: population size, labor investment in monumental construction, extent of road systems, mortuary practices, and symbolism of integrative facilities. Contrary to the conception of Mesoamerican societies as larger and more politically centralized, Chaco Canyon appears to have been organized at a larger scale than La Quemada. Yet it is argued that La Quemada was more hierarchically structured. Correctly evaluating complexity in both nature and degree is not only theoretically significant, but has implications for particular models of long-distance interaction between such large centers.

Resumen

Resumen

Hace tiempo que los arqueólogos disputan la complejidad de organizatión política en las sociedades del suroeste de los Estados Unidos, región que algunos estudiosos consideran como parte de Mesoamerica. Teorías recientemente planteadas indican la necesidad de deconstruir la complejidad, en este estudio un centro regional de dicha región es comparado con otro en la frontera septentrional de Mesoamérica, en cuanto a unas características que generalmente son vinculadas a la complejidad de la organización politica: tamaño de población, mano de obra invertida en las construcciones monumentales, extensión de los sistemas de caminos, costumbres funerarias, y simbolismo arquitectónico. Contrario a lo que sería esperado, parece ser que Chaco Canyon fue organizado a una escala mayor, sin embargo, La Quemada manifiesta una estructura social más jerárquica. Esta contradicción indica que los arqueólogos, a pesar de ser acertados en identificar la escala y la jerarquía como dimensiones importantes de la complejidad, necesitan considerarlas como dimensiones independientes. La interpretación correcta tanto del grado como de la naturaleza de la complejidad es significativa teoricamente, y también tiene implicaciones para las inferencias sobre la interacción a larga distancia entre tales centros.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 60 , Issue 4 , October 1995 , pp. 597 - 618
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1995

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