Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin

Explaining Pueblo Social Organization 293practices among their functions (Bustard 1996), orthey may be monuments to an elite (Cooper 1995).Cooper (1995) indicated that the overall pattern atSalmon and Aztec West was similar to the patterns atgreat houses in Chaco Canyon, but that the individualunits exhibited considerable variability and were notidentical to those in the canyon.Bustard (1996:252-257) documented diversity insmall sites, where she identified three growth patternsfor small house sites between A.D. 1000 and 1150:an agglomerative pattern of irregular rooms that werecharacterized by complex access rings; a modularpattern with similar, redundant units that had noaccess rings but did have one mealing unit that wouldunite the disparate units; and a single unit or roomblock that was similar to those in great houses. Thelast had wall foundations a!ld exhibited planning; theywere probably constructed for one group, but they hadno access rings. Thus, the diversity seen in greathouses is present at small sites, but the popUlationswithin them are integrated through different mechanisms.At some small sites, the mealing roomintegrates segregated storage areas with the plaza orpublic space; at great houses, the domestic roomsintegrate the public space in the plazas and thefeatureless rooms in the back. For great houses, theroom block modules were larger and doorwaysconnected newer construction with older units. Initialgreat houses were not simply small-site domestic unitswritten larger.If leading lineages maintained their power onlyas long as they remained in the villages they founded,it is likely that the evidence that has been interpretedas elite ranking in Pueblo Bonito fits well within theframework of historic Pueblo organization. In herreview, Lamphere (1983) considered the ceremoniesof contemporary Pueblo people to be shamanistic inworld view, b,ut with priests of powerful societiesrather than shamans as the real guardians of theceremonies. Although the agricultural cycle is thecentral focus of the ritual activity, hunting and curingrituals are equally important.Clues to the extent of power present in ChacoCanyon can be found in more detailed evaluations ofpictographs and petroglyphs as symbols that indicatethe degree of institutionalization of social position(Schaafsma 2000). In her study, Schaafsma comparedthe imagery in and around Chaco Canyon, and CasasGrandes in Mexico, in an attempt to determinewhether icons of political power are present.Although she recognized that this initial study is notdefinitive, evidence from Chaco does not support thepresence of an elite power structure within the canyonor its role as a central place within the San Juan Basin.Instead, Schaafsma suggested that Chaco shared acommon ideological and cosmological system withothers in the larger region. In contrast, the evidencefrom Casas Grandes supports a centralized sociopoliticalorganization. Based on this evidence, muchmore study is needed before we can understand thelevels of priestly power achieved by the Chacoans, butthe various lines of evidence suggest more competitionamong various leaders sharing a pan-Puebloideological system than an elite hierarchy, as R. Toll(1985) deduced. (See Feimnan [2000] and Feinman etal. [2000] for further discussion of differences inorganizational strategies of the Pueblo people.)The wetter period from A.D. 1100 to 1130would have lessened the need for cooperation ordependence of families and lineage segments on oneanother. Data from the canyon indicate a heavierdependence on com agriculture (M. Toll 1985, 2000).Yet the continued high spatial distribution of precipitationwould have maintained the need for tradeand interaction among the different areas. TheMcElmo structures with one small round roomsurrounded by many square rooms probably representlarge storage facilities that freed the earlier greathouses for other functions. The small kivas thatappear in Late Bonito phase great houses suggest thatearlier suprafamily organizations were not present, butrather that smaller segments needed permanent representativesin public structures at all times, or that therewas a change in function for the great houses. Thediversity in McElmo ceramic manufacturing locationsdocumented for Chaco CR. Toll and McKenna 1997)and lithics brought into the canyon (Cameron 1997b)support continued interaction. The decreased use ofGallup/Chaco pottery, however, suggests that Chacoanorganization changed, possibly as a result of fission,suggested by establishment of new communities (e.g.,Bis sa'ani), and the presence of two organizationcenters-one in Chaco and one in the north. If thefounders of northern great houses were not of thesame lineage group as those in Chaco Canyon, thematerial correlates would change, but there would not