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Power, Labor, and the Dynamics of Change in Chacoan Political Economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Dean J. Saitta
Dean J. Saitta*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208
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Abstract

The organizational structure of the famous Chaco Phenomenon has long been debated by southwestern archaeologists. To better clarify the nature and dynamics of Chacoan organization we need to rethink the relationship between social power and the appropriation of surplus labor in middle-range societies. Drawing on the tradition of anthropological political economy, I outline a theoretical approach that allows for the relative autonomy of power and labor relations in human social life and models Chacoan political economy using a “thin definition” of communalism. Empirical patterns from the Chaco and post-Chaco eras in the northern Southwest are presented in support of a model of Chaco communalism and change dynamics. Suggestions for furthering a political economy of the Chaco Phenomenon that respects the difference or “otherness” of the past are also detailed.

La estructura organizativa del ya famoso Fenómeno de Chaco ha sido ampliamente debatido por arqueólogos del Suroeste de los Estados Unidos. Para esclarecer mejor la naturaleza y dinámica de la organización de Chaco, debemos reevaluar la relación entre el poder social y la apropiación del trabajo sobrante en sociedades medias. En base a la tradición de la economía politica antropológica, se desarolla un enfoque teórico que permite una autonomia relativa de poder y relaciones de trabajo en la vida social humana, el cual modela la economía politica de Chaco usando una “definicion tenue” de comu-nalismo. Los patrones empiricos de las eras de Chaco y post-Chaco en el Suroeste norteno se presentan en apoyo de un modelo del comunalismo de Chaco y de la dinámica de cambio. También se presentan en detalle sugerencias para avanzar una economía politica del Fenómeno de Chaco que respete las diferencias del pasado.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 62 , Issue 1 , January 1997 , pp. 7 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1997

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References

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