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Fields of Power: Upland Farming in the Prehispanic Casas Grandes Polity, Chihuahua, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Paul E. Minnis ,
Michael E. Whalen  and
R. Emerson Howell
Paul E. Minnis
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019 (minnis@ou.edu)
Michael E. Whalen
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK 74104 (Michael-Whalen@utulsa.edu)
R. Emerson Howell
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (rhowell@u.arizona.edu)
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Abstract

Analysis of nearly 200 prehispanic upland farming locations around Casas Grandes in northwestern Chihuahua indicates that land modification was widespread and involved a range of farming strategies depending on microtopographic setting. Most significantly, some cultivation seems to have been organized or controlled by the leaders of the Casas Grandes polity. Unusually large fields associate with small sites that likely served special administrative and/or ritual roles and that are in sparsely occupied locations.

Résumé

Résumé

Análisis de casi 200 ubicaciones de cultivo de tierra alta en los alrededores de Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, México, indican que en tiempos prehistóricos había modificaciones extensivas de esta tierra para construir sistemas agrícolas. Se usaba un rango de estrategias de cultivo, las cuales se determinaron por las diversas situaciones topográficas de la región. Significativamente, al menos una parte de este cultivo parece haber sido controlado por los líderes del sistema de organización regional que se enfocaba en el centro de Casas Grandes. Esto hace suponer que existen enormes sistemas de cultivo asociados con comunidades pequeñas y situadas en localidades de poca población prehistórica. Sus características arquitectónicas sugieren que dichas comunidades pequeñas tuvieran funciones administrativas y rituales en el sistema regional de Casas Grandes, incluso control sobre aspectos de la producción de comida.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 71 , Issue 4 , October 2006 , pp. 707 - 722
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2006

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