Doctoral Disstertation Research: Regional Mobility and the Development of Segmentary Structures: A Case Study from the Prehistory of the Taos District, New Mexico

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

Under the direction of Dr. Richard Ford, Mr. Severin Fowles will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. Through a combination of archaeological excavation and the analysis of extant museum materials he will reconstruct the social organization and population movements of prehistoric peoples in the Taos District of New Mexico during the several centuries preceding Spanish arrival. During this period of marked social change aggregated populations dispersed and then rearranged themselves in new concentrations marked by large multi-story pueblo villages. Some areas such as Taos which had been sparsely inhabited saw the rise of multiple village communities. Mr. Fowles wishes to understand both the origins and social organization of these entities. Ethnographic data indicates that many early historic Southwestern Native American peoples were organized into segmentary lineage systems. Clearly defined subgroups existed within the society and individual membership was parentally inherited. Relationships between lineages were clearly defined and social control, marriage patterns, inheritance and ritual responsibility all were determined by lineage structure. While likely this pattern existed prehistorically, this is difficult to prove. It is also unclear how it originated. Mr. Fowles hypothesizes that the aggregated community he plans to examine was structured according to segmentary lineage principles, that its founders derived from distinct cultural groups who migrated from different areas and came together to found it, and that the individual lineages correspond to individual founding groups. To examine this model, will use excavated material from several museums to reconstruct population structure prior to aggregation and search for material signatures which characterize individual groups. He will then examine one large site, Pot Creek Pueblo to determine whether these antecedent populations came together to form the site. He will study the distribution of these cultural markers within the site to find out whether they blend or maintain clear and distinct associations and, if so, whether the are spatially segregated within the as one would predict if segmentary lineages were present. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will provide insight into how groups at a technologically simple level adapt and rearrange themselves across a changing landscape and how they are organized into coherent and functioning societies. This project will also assist in training a promising young scientist.