Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

184 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY
distribution that he observed when he plotted
lodge floor areas for 54 Central Plains houses.
The distribution revealed one group of lodges
clustering between 100 and 700 square feet in
floor area (9.3 and 65 m^) with another group
ranging between 900 and 1700 square feet (84
and 158 m^). Johnson interpreted this bimodal
pattern as reflecting the onset of drought conditions
beginning around A.D. 1200, which resulted
in a shift from large lodges in hamlets to small
isolated lodges as proposed by Krause. If Krause
and Johnson are correct in their interpretations,
then, larger lodges (over 900 square feet or 84 m^)
will date earlier than the smaller lodges (under
700 square feet or 65 m^).
The Krause model was applied to the Glenwood
locality by Anderson and Zimmerman
(1976), and was later incorporated into a computer-simulated
settlement study by Zimmerman
(1977). Anderson and Zimmerman approached
the question of settlement pattern variability in
the Glenwood locality by developing a culturalecological
model to explain the diversity in lodge
size and placement. Essentially, this model was
based on a hypothesized 400-year occupation of
the locality, occurring between A.D. 900 and 1300.
Changes in settlement pattern were viewed as
responses to a shift to drier conditions around A.D.
1150 to 1250, which would have resulted in the
expansion of the prairies and the reduction of the
woodlands (Anderson and Zimmerman, 1976:
152). A number of adjustments to this climatic
shift by the inhabitants was suggested. Of particular
interest to this study are the hypothesized
climatically induced changes in subsistence systems,
resulting in a modification of artifact assemblages
from the more recent lodges, and a relocation
of the population from lodges on the ridgetops
to houses located at the hillslope-bottomland
contact. Relocation from the ridgetops to
the valley floors was viewed as a necessary response
to generally drier conditions, because diminished
rainfall would render ridgeline horticulture
impracticable. Additional hypotheses
were proposed, ranging from siting and orientation
of the lodges to proposed kinship organization
(Anderson and Zimmerman, 1976:153):
We regard the known house distribution as the reflection of
one dispersed community layout. This community may have
occupied the locality for several hundred years. What appears
to be house clusters may be no more than the remains
of serially constructed dwellings of one lineage, occupying
the same topographic location through time. Each house
might be home for an extended family unit, cooperating and
interacting with other families as custom and need dictated.
The Anderson and Zimmerman model clearly
is concerned with the same questions examined
by Krause (1969, 1970), but the conclusions regarding
changes in settlement patterns through
time are directly opposite. Anderson and Zimmerman
view the chronological development of
the Glenwood locality as represented by early
settlement in small isolated households located on
the ridgetops; only later did the inhabitants aggregate
into hamlets in the bottomlands as a
response to a deteriorating climate. In establishing
the variables for his 1977 study, Zimmerman
(1977:75) defined the usual size of the dispersed
isolated houses on the ridgetops as "under 400
square feet [37 m^] in area, whereas the clustered
lodges range from 400 to a reported 1600 square
feet [148.6 m^]."
All three of the models postulate a long-term
developmental sequence of occupation in the localities
with changes in settlement pattern responding
to the onset of the Pacific (A.D. 1250-
1450), when diminishing summer rainfall rendered
corn farming difficult if not impossible in
the Central Plains. In response to these conditions,
either the large farming hamlets disbanded
(Krause, 1970:112), or the small lodges on ridgelines
were abandoned and people clustered into
large hamlets (Anderson and Zimmerman,
1976:151; Zimmerman, 1977:74).
The data from the Glen Elder locality cited by
Krause (1969, 1970) in support of his model were
systematically studied by Lippincott (1976).
Based on the radiocarbon data supplied by Lippincott
(1976:115a), the radiocarbon dates cited
but not presented by Krause (1969:89; 1970:108)
are not supportive of the postulated developmental
sequence: the range for farming hamlets
is from A.D. 1090±80 to 1340±100, while the
range for small isolated households and seasonal