Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Spatial Manifestations Of Social Identity

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

The primary objective of this research is to investigate the continual interplay that occurs between people and the spaces they construct as settlements change in size and scale. Archaeology provides a unique time depth for analyzing the processes of population aggregation and dispersal and can prove informative on a range of questions concerning the social implications of village life. How do previously dispersed social groups adjust to cohabitation? How is integration achieved and at what pace does it occur when new groups of people come together to construct new villages and other spatial units? Do certain events or forms of organization foreshadow village depopulation? This research attempts to better understand the negotiations among distinct groups as they begin sharing space. Research focused on architecture has revealed important aspects of cultural systems that shape and are shaped by their physical setting. Migration plays a major role in the world today -- for example in many regions of the developing world people flock from rural regions to reshape and expand cities -- and this proposed study of the past can provide insight into the process as it proceeds on a much expanded scale today. Dr. E Charles Adams and Samantha Fladd will examine the strategies used by groups to modify their spatial setting and the social implications these choices have on the creation and dissolution of a community. Using excavation records from the 14th century ancestral Hopi villages of the Homol'ovi Settlement Cluster, architectural alterations, such as changing room size, internal features, and doorways, and the use of trash to fill rooms will be located spatially and temporally. Significant reorganization throughout the occupation of the villages and their eventual depopulation resulted in frequent architectural changes and the frequent deposition of cultural materials within rooms. Patterns in the composition and scale of these practices of modification will allow for distinctions to be made among social groups within the villages, as well as allow for the assessment of their relative interactions with one another. Depopulation of these villages was gradual and modifications to space, particularly the filling of rooms, illustrate this process. How these groups and relationships change throughout village occupation can reveal fluctuations in social organization that shed light on the relative success of strategies of integration during different phases of aggregation and dispersal. Detailed models of village aggregation and dissolution, applicable to historic and modern contexts, will be generated and a greater understanding of the history of the Homol'ovi Settlement Cluster will be of interest to scholars and descendant communities. Additionally, this research relies on records from previously excavated sites, furthering the ideals of preservation and stewardship central to archaeology and increasing the accessibility to the excavation documentation. Finally, the framework of this project forefronts the training of students in archaeological research and archival practices.