Access, Accumulation, and Action: Social Identity at Homol'ovi

Abstract

My research examines the articulation between spatial and social order in the late Prehispanic Pueblo Southwest. The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Four Corners region of the Southwest United States were characterized by substantial migration and the increasing aggregation of populations into large villages clustered across the landscape. These new social arrangements brought previously independent and often diverse groups into close proximity through their occupation of contiguous architectural structures. My dissertation seeks to understand how groups utilized, interacted with, and related to their new spatial settings through an examination of the three largest villages of the Homol’ovi Settlement Cluster, a group of ancestral Hopi villages (1260–1400 CE) located along the middle Little Colorado River in northeastern Arizona. This study focused on addressing four main research themes: 1) social identities and their development in space; 2) spatial and temporal relationships between social groups; 3) social identities and community establishment throughout a village’s life history; and 4) the creation of an appropriate methodology to combine architectural and depositional data in analyses of archaeological contexts. As identities are often closely linked with social spaces, research focused on assessments of modifications to Pueblo rooms, which could include either architectural alterations or the deposition of cultural materials within the structure. While studies of architecture often concern space as designed, a focus on room modifications allows for the analysis of the space as lived and interacted with over time. Drawing on data compiled from detailed excavation records produced by the Homol’ovi Research Program over 30 years, patterns of room modification were assessed for over 130 excavated structures at the three largest villages: Chevelon Pueblo, Homol’ovi I, and Homol’ovi II. To address the fourth research theme, I adapted an architectural methodology—social syntax—through the combination of traditional space syntax with practice theory and a biographical/life history approach to rooms and artifacts. Through this combination, synchronic and diachronic trends related to the use and meaning of space could be considered holistically by incorporating architectural studies with depositional analyses. Social identities at varying scales were evidenced in the long-term treatment of rooms, with some identities, such as gender, demonstrating strong continuity. Rather than serving as a reflection of the group, the creation of room assemblages themselves helped to constitute these identities while reaffirming the significance and singularity of each space. While certain patterns occur in all three villages, other illuminate important distinctions within the settlement cluster, particularly in terms of site conformity and the development of a sense of community identity. Ultimately, my dissertation highlights the importance of merging architectural and depositional data in the analysis of Pueblo rooms to understand their transition from lived spaces to filled repositories and introduces a methodological framework that could be used to assess spatial modifications in other archaeological contexts.