Abstract:Studies of domestic architectural variation are rare in archaeological research, possibly because the essential methods remain underdeveloped. To encourage a comparative approach to explaining the construction differences in household dwellings, we designed and utilized objective and easily applied means to calculate labor costs for constructing a variety of domestic architectural styles in Hohokam society. We applied Abrams's (1989, 1994) approach, labelled “architectural energetics,” which converts architect… Show more
“…The construction of each style was made unique by the combination of (1) the presence/absence and different forms of house pits and (2) the various means by which the builders made use of locally procured building materials (wood, brush, adobe, and rock) to form the walls and roof. Differences in construction among the various architectural styles at Pueblo Grande are apparent in Figure 4, and more detailed descriptions can be found in our previous publication (Abbott et al 2019:322–327). Figure 4.Architectural styles at Pueblo Grande.…”
Section: Architectural Styles At Pueblo Grandementioning
confidence: 76%
“…Various elements of our methodology have been published previously as supplementary materials linked to our earlier article (Abbott et al 2019). They comprise a narrative and other texts to usher the analyst through the construction-cost calculations.…”
Section: Methodsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Just as we were finishing our manuscript, our dear friend and coauthor, Doug Craig, passed away. It was pure pleasure working with Doug on this project and on our preceding effort (Abbott et al 2019). We dedicate this article to Doug for his many outstanding contributions to Hohokam archaeology.…”
Section: Acknowledgmentsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…We direct our attention to the physical domain of Hohokam households—their architecture. In a previous article (Abbott et al 2019), we provided a method for reconstructing the labor costs for house construction, taking into account different architectural styles from different time periods. We examine the labor costs involved in building houses at Pueblo Grande, one of the most densely populated and politically prominent villages in the Hohokam region.…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The purpose of our investigations has been threefold. First, in our previous publication (Abbott et al 2019), we developed and implemented a methodology to calculate construction costs of various styles of Hohokam architecture, which we hope will be widely applied for other Hohokam projects and beyond. To facilitate future applications, we described in detail the variables used, the rationale and justification for their measurement, the way the measurements were made, and the way the construction costs were derived.…”
Recent archaeological efforts to explain the emergence and persistence of social inequality have been hampered by little information about how wealth was transmitted across generations, and how it may have accumulated or diminished over time. Building on studies that have shown domestic architecture to be an excellent material expression of household wealth, we provide a method for reconstructing the amount of labor invested in house construction among the Hohokam of southern Arizona. We also account for different architectural styles from different time periods. To illustrate the utility of the method for addressing broader social issues, we investigate the relationship among population increases, resource shortages, and wealth differentials at Pueblo Grande—one of the preeminent settlements in the Hohokam region. Inequality at Pueblo Grande was tracked over time and compared to similar results at the Grewe site. High-status households at both sites were distinguished architecturally by larger and, in some instances, more elaborate houses. The proximity of these households to public areas for ceremonial expression further suggests that access to ritual played a key role in creating and maintaining inequality in Hohokam society.
“…The construction of each style was made unique by the combination of (1) the presence/absence and different forms of house pits and (2) the various means by which the builders made use of locally procured building materials (wood, brush, adobe, and rock) to form the walls and roof. Differences in construction among the various architectural styles at Pueblo Grande are apparent in Figure 4, and more detailed descriptions can be found in our previous publication (Abbott et al 2019:322–327). Figure 4.Architectural styles at Pueblo Grande.…”
Section: Architectural Styles At Pueblo Grandementioning
confidence: 76%
“…Various elements of our methodology have been published previously as supplementary materials linked to our earlier article (Abbott et al 2019). They comprise a narrative and other texts to usher the analyst through the construction-cost calculations.…”
Section: Methodsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Just as we were finishing our manuscript, our dear friend and coauthor, Doug Craig, passed away. It was pure pleasure working with Doug on this project and on our preceding effort (Abbott et al 2019). We dedicate this article to Doug for his many outstanding contributions to Hohokam archaeology.…”
Section: Acknowledgmentsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…We direct our attention to the physical domain of Hohokam households—their architecture. In a previous article (Abbott et al 2019), we provided a method for reconstructing the labor costs for house construction, taking into account different architectural styles from different time periods. We examine the labor costs involved in building houses at Pueblo Grande, one of the most densely populated and politically prominent villages in the Hohokam region.…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The purpose of our investigations has been threefold. First, in our previous publication (Abbott et al 2019), we developed and implemented a methodology to calculate construction costs of various styles of Hohokam architecture, which we hope will be widely applied for other Hohokam projects and beyond. To facilitate future applications, we described in detail the variables used, the rationale and justification for their measurement, the way the measurements were made, and the way the construction costs were derived.…”
Recent archaeological efforts to explain the emergence and persistence of social inequality have been hampered by little information about how wealth was transmitted across generations, and how it may have accumulated or diminished over time. Building on studies that have shown domestic architecture to be an excellent material expression of household wealth, we provide a method for reconstructing the amount of labor invested in house construction among the Hohokam of southern Arizona. We also account for different architectural styles from different time periods. To illustrate the utility of the method for addressing broader social issues, we investigate the relationship among population increases, resource shortages, and wealth differentials at Pueblo Grande—one of the preeminent settlements in the Hohokam region. Inequality at Pueblo Grande was tracked over time and compared to similar results at the Grewe site. High-status households at both sites were distinguished architecturally by larger and, in some instances, more elaborate houses. The proximity of these households to public areas for ceremonial expression further suggests that access to ritual played a key role in creating and maintaining inequality in Hohokam society.
A causal link between environmental degradation and societal collapse has captivated the imagination of generations of archaeologists, historians, and the public. At its core, it is believed that the agricultural aspirations of societies outstrip what the environment can offer. The Hohokam, who farmed the Phoenix Basin of Arizona, USA, for nearly a millennium (AD 475–1450), have been repeatedly used as an exemplar of incongruence between the environment and agricultural practices leading to crop failures and ultimately societal collapse. Contributing to the collapse narrative is crop failures that spread across the lower Salt River Valley during the late 1800s. Unacknowledged by collapse narratives is that unproductive fields were brought back to life at the start of the twentieth century with techniques not beyond the capability of the Hohokam. Hohokam farmers and their descendants maintained and prospered in the valley for more than a millennium, so the assumed unidirectionality toward degraded productive capacity warrants examination. In this article, five lines of evidence are used to assess the relationships among soil salinization, waterlogging, and agricultural productive capacity. The multistep approach reveals that available evidence fails to substantiate soil salinization and waterlogging as primary catalysts in the decline of Hohokam irrigation. As such, establishing causality between environmental factors and societal decline in the past requires multiple lines of evidence producing contextually detailed syntheses, rather than simple models.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
