Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin

Related Communities 265when the divergence actually began, and what thecauses were.Recently, Mills (2002) prepared an excellentoverview of Chacoan economy, ritual, and society.She recognized that the concensus is that Chaco wasnot a centralized political organization. Currently,most scholars acknowledge the role of ritual as a keylink that tied these different groups together in acoherent fashion. The question that comes to fore ishow that ritual developed, operated, and changed overtime. What aspects of Historic Pueblo organizationhave considerable time-depth? How far back C8-11 wetake different practices?Whatever Chaco represents, the archaeologistsassociated directly and indirectly with the ChacoProject stimulated new thoughts and interpretations ofthe Puebloan past. Once the scope of the system, withits numerous great houses and communities, the roadsand road-related sites, and considerations of builtspace and community facilities became apparent, thenumber of models for how Chaco Canyon fit within abroader Southwestern perspective mushroomed. Howthe numerous communities relate to Chaco is stillunder consideration (Kantner 2003a, 2003b; Kantnerand Kintigh 2005; Mahoney 2000a). A discussion ofmodels of Chacoan society follows in Chapter 9.