Suchergebnisse

Abandonment of Settlements and Regions: Ethnoarchaeological and Archaeological Approaches. Catherine M. Cameron and Steve A. Tomka, eds.

Archaeological research on abandonments has focused primarily on their causes, as though they were final events. This article investigates the abandonment at the end of the Mimbres Classic Period as a process of reorganization within a larger social context. Analyses of pottery and architecture demonstrate that previously homogeneous material culture was replaced by a diversity of technological styles. These material changes indicate that the reorganization involved the development of broader regional ties and the redefinition of community.

ABSTRACT  Change is inevitable, but some changes and transformations are more dramatic and fraught with suffering than others. Resilience theory suggests the concept of a "rigidity trap" as an explanation for these differences. In rigidity traps, a high degree of connectivity and the suppression of innovation prolong an increasingly rigid state, with the result that the eventual transformation is harsh. Three archaeological cases from the U.S. Southwest (Mimbres, Mesa Verde, and Hohokam) and new methods for assessing transformations and rigidity are used to evaluate this concept. They reveal the expected association between the severity of transformation and degree of rigidity, suggesting that a rigidity trap contributed to the Hohokam decline, which included significant human suffering. Possible causes of rigidity, with implications for today's world, are explored.