Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T02:38:11.631Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Field Houses, Villages, and the Tragedy of the Commons in the Early Northern Anasazi Southwest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Timothy A. Kohler
Timothy A. Kohler*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-4910
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The first man, who after enclosing a piece of ground, took it into his head to say, this is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. How many crimes, how many wars, how many murders, how many misfortunes and horrors, would that man have saved the human species, who pulling up the stakes or filling up the ditches should have cried to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are lost, if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong equally to us all, and the earth itself to nobody!

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1967 [1755]:211-212)

The appearance of field houses and villages in the early northern Anasazi Southwest is interpreted as containing information concerning inclusiveness of land ownership or control. Early northern Anasazi villages probably practiced patterns of resource control much like those documented historically in many pueblos, where agricultural lands were frequently controlled at an atomistic level (by individuals or households) so long as fields were in use, but remained communal property in theory and could be reallocated to other members of the community. The appearance of field houses may be an attempt to limit access to previously free and unregulated lands and the resources thereon in response to resource scarcity. This scarcity, in turn, may be the result of overexploitation of such lands, in part through shifting cultivation. The general process of overexploitation of commons leading either to their centralized regulation or to privatization has been described by Hardin (1968) as the "tragedy of the commons."

Resumen

Resumen

Se propone que la aparición de puestos agrícolas y aldeas en etapas tempranas de la historia de los Anasazi del norte dentro del suroeste de los Estados Unidos contiene información acerca de la posesión y control de la tierra. Las aldeas tempranas de los Anasazi del norte probablemente practicaban patrones de control de recursos similares a los documentados históricamente para varios pueblos, entre quienes las tierras agrícolas eran frecuentemente controladas a un nivel atomístico (por individuos o grupos domésticos) mientras los campos se encontraban en uso, pero permanecían siendo propiedad comunal a nivel teórico y podían ser reasignados a otros miembros de la comunidad. La aparicón de puestos agrícolas puede ser un intento de limitar acceso a tierras y recursos previamente libres y sin regular en respuesta a una escasez de recursos. A su vez, esta escasez puede ser el resultado de la sobreexplotación de tierras, en parte a través del sistema de agricultura itinerante. El proceso general de sobreexplotación de las tierras comunales llevando a su regulación centralizada o a su privatización ha sido descripto por Hardin (1968) como la "tragedia de la propiedad comunal."

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 57 , Issue 4 , October 1992 , pp. 617 - 635
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Reference Cited

Adler, M. A. 1990 Community, Aggregation and Land Tenure: The Search for a Common Ground. Paper presented at the 55th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Las Vegas.Google Scholar
Adler, M. A. 1992 Land Tenure Systems and Prehistoric Land Use: Perspectives from the American Southwest. Paper presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Brown, P., and Podolefsky, A. 1976 Population Density, Agricultural Intensity, Land Tenure and Group Size in the New Guinea Highlands. Ethnology 15: 211–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coe, M. D., and Diehl, R. A. 1980 The People of the River. In The Land of the Olmec, vol. 2. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
de Montmollin, O. 1989 Land Tenure and Politics in the Late/Terminal Classic Rosario Valley, Chiapas, Mexico. Journal of Anthropological Research 45: 293–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dozier, E. P. 1970 The Pueblo Indians of North America. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York.Google Scholar
Dyson-Hudson, R., and Smith, E. A. 1978 Human Territoriality: An Ecological Reassessment. American Anthropologist 80: 21–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ebert, J. I., and Kohler, T. A. 1988 The Theoretical Basis of Archaeological Predictive Modeling and a Consideration of Appropriate Data-Collection Methods. In Quantifying the Present and Predicting the Past: Theory, Method, and Application of Archaeological Predictive Modeling, edited by Judge, W. J. and Sebastian, L., pp. 97–171. USDI Bureau of Land Management, Denver.Google Scholar
Ellis, F. H. 1978 Small Structures Used by Historic Pueblo Peoples and Their Immediate Ancestors. In Limited Activity and Occupation Sites: A Collection of Conference Papers, edited by Ward, A. E., pp. 51–59. Contributions to Anthropology No. 1. Center for Anthropological Studies, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Feeny, D., Berkes, F., McCay, B. J., and Acheson, J. M. 1990 The Tragedy of the Commons: Twenty-Two Years Later. Human Ecology 18: 1–19.Google ScholarPubMed
Floyd, M. L., and Kohler, T. A. 1990 Current Productivity and Prehistoric Use of Pifion (Pinus edulis) in the Dolores Archaeological Project Area, Southwestern Colorado. Economic Botany 44: 141–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardin, G. 1968 The Tragedy of the Commons. Science 162: 1243–1248.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haury, E. W. 1956 Speculations on Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Southwest. In Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the New World, edited by Willey, G. R., pp. 3–10. Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology No. 23. Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, New York.Google Scholar
Johnson, A. W., and Earle, T. 1987 The Evolution of Human Societies: From Foraging Group to Agrarian State. Stanford University Press, Stanford.Google Scholar
Kane, A. E. 1986 Prehistory of the Dolores River Valley. In Dolores Archaeological Program: Final Synthetic Report, compiled by Breternitz, D. A., Robinson, C. K., and Gross, G. T., pp. 353–438. USDI Bureau of Reclamation, Engineering and Research Center, Denver.Google Scholar
Kane, A. E. 1989 Did the Sheep Look Up? Sociopolitical Complexity in Ninth Century Dolores Society. In The Sociopolitical Structure of Prehistoric Southwestern Societies, edited by Upham, S., Lightfoot, K. G., and Jewett, R. A., pp. 307–361. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado.Google Scholar
Kohler, T. A., and Matthews, M. H. 1988 Long-Term Anasazi Land Use and Forest Reduction: A Case Study from Southwest Colorado. American Antiquity 53: 537–564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohler, T. A., Orcutt, J. D., Blinman, E., and Petersen, K. L. 1986 Anasazi Spreadsheets: The Cost of Doing Agricultural Business in Prehistoric Dolores. In Dolores Archaeological Program: Final Synthetic Report, compiled by Breternitz, D. A., Robinson, C. K., and Gross, G. T., pp. 525–538. USDI Bureau of Reclamation, Engineering and Research Center, Denver.Google Scholar
McKay, B. J., and Acheson, J. M. 1987 Human Ecology and the Commons. In The Question of the Commons: The Culture and Ecology of Communal Resources, edited by McCay, B. J. and Acheson, J. M., pp. 1–34. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Matson, R. G. 1988 The Adoption of Agriculture in the Southwest: The View from Cedar Mesa, Utah. Paper presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Phoenix.Google Scholar
Matson, R. G., and Chisholm, B. 1991 Basketmaker II Subsistence: Carbon Isotopes and Other Dietary Indicators from Cedar Mesa, Utah. American Antiquity 56: 444–459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matson, R. G., Lipe, W. D., and Haase, W. R. IV 1988 Adaptational Continuities and Occupational Discontinuities: The Cedar Mesa Anasazi. Journal of Field Archaeology 15: 245–264.Google Scholar
Moore, B. 1978 Are Pueblo Fieldhouses a Function of Urbanization? In Limited Activity and Occupation Sites: A Collection of Conference Papers, edited by Ward, A. E., pp. 9–16. Contributions to Anthropological Studies No. 1. Center for Anthropological Studies, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Netting, R. McC. 1982 Territory, Property, and Tenure. In Behavioral and Social Science Research: A National Resource (Part II), edited by R. McC. Adams, Smelser, N. J., and Treiman, D. J., pp. 446–502. National Academy Press, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Orcutt, J. D. 1986 Site Catchment Composition and Resource Diversity. In Dolores Archaeological Program: Research Designs and Initial Survey Results, compiled by Kane, A. E., Lipe, W. D., Kohler, T. A., and Robinson, C. K., pp. 210–222. USDI Bureau of Reclamation, Engineering and Research Center, Denver.Google Scholar
Orcutt, J. D. 1987 Modeling Prehistoric Agricultural Ecology in the Dolores Area. In Dolores Archaeological Program: Supporting Studies: Settlement and Environment, compiled by Petersen, K. L. and Orcutt, J. D., pp. 649–681. USDI Bureau of Reclamation, Engineering and Research Center, Denver.Google Scholar
Orcutt, J. D. 1988 Changes in Settlement Organization on the Pajarito Plateau, New Mexico. Paper presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Phoenix.Google Scholar
Orcutt, J. D., Blinman, E., and Kohler, T. A. 1990 Explanations of Population Aggregation in the Mesa Verde Region Prior to A. D. 900. In Perspectives on Southwestern Prehistory, edited by Minnis, P. E. and Redman, C. L., pp. 196–212. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado.Google Scholar
Plog, S. 1990 Agriculture, Sedentism, and Environment in the Evolution of Political Systems. In The Evolution of Political Systems: Sociopolitics in Small-Scale Sedentary Societies, edited by Upham, S., pp. 177–199. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Preucel, R. W. 1988 Seasonal Agricultural Circulation and Residential Mobility: A Prehistoric Example from the Pajarito Plateau, New Mexico. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Ross, D. W. 1971 The Early History of Land-Holding Among the Germans. Reprinted. Lenox Hill, New York. Originally published 1883, Burt Franklin, New York.Google Scholar
Rousseau, J-J. 1967 [1755] Discourse on the Origin and the Foundation of Inequality Among Mankind. In The Social Contract and Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, edited by Crocker, L. G., pp. 175–258. Washington Square Press, New York.Google Scholar
Schlanger, S. H. 1988 Patterns of Population Movement and Long-Term Population Growth in Southwestern Colorado. American Antiquity 53: 773–793.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, E. A. 1988 Risk and Uncertainty in the ‘Original Affluent Society': Evolutionary Ecology of Resource Sharing and Land Tenure. In Hunters and Gatherers 1: History, Evolution, and Social Change, edited by Ingold, T., Riches, D, and Woodburn, J., pp. 222–302. Berg, Oxford.Google Scholar
Upham, S. 1990 Decoupling the Processes of Political Evolution. In The Evolution of Political Systems: Sociopolitics in Small-Scale Sedentary Societies, edited by Upham, S., pp. 1–17. School of American Research Book, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Van West, C. R., and Kohler, T. A. 1992 A Time to Rend, A Time to Sew: New Perspectives on Northern Anasazi Sociopolitical Development in Later Prehistory. Ms. on file, Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman.Google Scholar
White, L. A. 1974 The Pueblo ofSia, New Mexico. Reprinted. Calvin Horn, Albuquerque. Originally published 1962, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin No. 184, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Whitely, P. M. 1985 Unpacking the Hopi “Clans“: Another Vintage Model Out of Africa? Journal of Anthropological Research 41: 359–374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilcox, D. R. 1978 The Theoretical Significance of Fieldhouses. In Limited Activity and Occupation Sites: A Collection of Conference Papers, edited by Ward, A. E., pp. 25–32. Contributions to Anthropological Studies No. 1. Center for Anthropological Studies, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Wills, W. H., and Windes, T. C. 1989 Evidence for Population Aggregation and Dispersal During the Basketmaker III Period in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. American Antiquity 54: 347–369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilshusen, R., and Blinman, E. 1992 Pueblo I Village Formation: A Reevaluation of Sites Recorded by Earl Morris on Ute Mountain Tribal Lands. The Kiva 57: 251–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodbury, R. B. 1961 Prehistoric Agriculture at Point of Pines, Arizona. Memoirs No. 17. Society for American Archaeology, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar