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dc.contributor.authorCameron, Catherine M.
dc.date.accessioned2010-09-29T17:10:19Z
dc.date.available2010-09-29T17:10:19Z
dc.date.issued1992
dc.identifier.citationArizona Anthropologist 8:1-17. © 1992 Association of Student Anthropologists Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721en_US
dc.identifier.issn1062-1601
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10150/112036
dc.description.abstractCraft specialization is often used as one indicator of social complexity and even as a prime mover in the development of hierarchical social organization. In these arguments, the important distinction between craft specialization and craft industrialization is generally ignored. Claims for craft specialization are examined in three prehistoric cultures in the American Southwest for which complex social organization has been suggested: Chaco Canyon, the Hohokam, and the Western Anasazi. The material correlates of craft industries in a number of early state-level societies are briefly described and contrasted in both scale and level of organization with the Southwestern pattern. Finally, several models for the development of craft production are used to evaluate the role of craft specialization in the social organization of groups in the puebloan Southwest. The apparent inability of Southwestern groups to produce a surplus of subsistence goods inhibited development of a social hierarchy that could support craft industries. Production and exchange of craft goods at the household level may have been primarily a form of insurance against an uncertain environment.
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Arizona, Department of Anthropologyen_US
dc.titleThe Role of Craft Specialization in the Evolution of Prehistoric Societies in the American Southwesten_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dc.identifier.journalArizona Anthropologisten_US
refterms.dateFOA2018-06-16T22:16:02Z
html.description.abstractCraft specialization is often used as one indicator of social complexity and even as a prime mover in the development of hierarchical social organization. In these arguments, the important distinction between craft specialization and craft industrialization is generally ignored. Claims for craft specialization are examined in three prehistoric cultures in the American Southwest for which complex social organization has been suggested: Chaco Canyon, the Hohokam, and the Western Anasazi. The material correlates of craft industries in a number of early state-level societies are briefly described and contrasted in both scale and level of organization with the Southwestern pattern. Finally, several models for the development of craft production are used to evaluate the role of craft specialization in the social organization of groups in the puebloan Southwest. The apparent inability of Southwestern groups to produce a surplus of subsistence goods inhibited development of a social hierarchy that could support craft industries. Production and exchange of craft goods at the household level may have been primarily a form of insurance against an uncertain environment.


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