Southwest US

The empirical component of our research involves five prehispanic sequences in the southwestern US and northern Mexico; these range from 500 to 750 years and represent climate, environmental, and cultural changes of varying magnitudes.

Project description

The Southwest Case in IHOPE is a product of research by the Long-term Vulnerability and Transformation Project (LTVTP), based at Arizona State University and involves researchers from many institutions. The LTVTP uses the deep time of the archaeological record to develop general understandings of factors that contribute to resilience and vulnerability, to stability and transformation, and to the characteristics of various types of change, including transformations, that are costly and/or painful to the people and environments involved. It draws on the resilience perspective, as well as on recent literature on robustness-vulnerability tradeoffs. A recently funded initiative of the LTVTP project builds upon this research by examining how social and ecological diversity interact to influence the resilience of societies facing major changes in their social or environmental circumstances. The goal is to discover configurations of diversity in ecological landscapes and in forms of social organization that make systems more or less able to cope with significant environmental or social changes without undergoing an unpleasant transformation.

Map of the LTVTP case study areas. Our fifth case, which is not shown on this map, is *La Quemada* in the Malpaso Valley in the state of Zacatecas, Mexico.

Empirically, the LTVTP focuses on five archaeologically known cases that together span the period from AD 450 to 1600 in the southwestern US and northern Mexico. The cases are investigated individually and comparatively, and theories about general processes affecting vulnerability and transformation are investigated by working iteratively between archaeological analysis, mathematical modeling, and institutional analysis. Thus the project involves collaboration among experts in archaeology, mathematical modeling, ecology, and institutional analysis.

Aerial overview of room blocks at Gran Quivira (©Adriel Heisey), with the mission of San Buenaventura at right. Plaza pueblos had been built at each of this location in the 1300s. There is clear archaeological evidence that these earlier pueblos had been abandoned for some time before the larger pueblos were established in the 1400s. The more vulnerable location of these earlier villages was probably an important factor in their abandonment. (read more)

Descriptions of the LTVTP cases, comparative data about the cases, the research team and key publications are all available as a LTVTP digital storage record.

Publications by LTVTP collaborators with support from National Science Foundation, Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) BCS-1113991

Books and Dissertations

C. Strawhacker (2013). Sustaining irrigation agriculture for the long-term: lessons on maintaining soil quality from ancient agricultural fields in the Phoenix Basin and on the North Coast of Peru. Unpublished PhD. Dissertation, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe. Raw Data on Soils Collected from Prehispanic and Historic Fields on the Middle Gila River – tDAR id: 391893); doi:10.6067/XCV8BG2PWF

M. Hegmon (2016). The Archaeology of the Human Experience. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, No 27.

W. G. Russell (2016). Social Inequality in the Mimbres Region of the US Southwest ca 200-1130 CE. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University.

M. Hegmon (2017). The Give and Take of Sustainability:Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives. Cambridge University Press.

A. L. Torvinen (2018). Social Identification and the Capacity for Collective Action at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico (600-800 CE). Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe.

S. Oas (2019). Cibola Breadstuff: Foodways and Social Transformation in the Cibola Region A.D. 1150-1400. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University.

Journal Articles

Freeman, J., J. M. Anderies, A. L. Torvinen, B. A. Nelson (2014). Crop specialization, exchange, and robustness in a semi-arid environment. Human Ecology 42 (2): 297.

B.J. Butterfield (2015). Environmental Filtering Increases in Intensity at Both Ends of Climate Gradients though Driven By Different Factors Across Woody Vegetation Types in the Southwest USA. Oikos 124: 1374.

J. Freeman, M. A. Peeples, J. M. Anderies (2015). Toward a Theory of Non-linear Transitions from Foraging to Farming. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 40:109.

M. C. Nelson, S. E. Ingram, A. J. Dugmore, R. Streeter, M. A. Peeples, T. H. McGovern, M. Hegmon, J. Arneborg, K. W. Kintigh, S. Brewington, K. A. Spielmann, I. A. Simpson, C. Strawhacker, L. E. L. Comeau, A. Torvinen, C. K. Madsen, G. Hambrecht , K. Smiarowski (2015). Climate Challenges, Vulnerabilities, and Food Security. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113 (2): 298.

M. K. Woodson, J. A. Sandor, C. Strawhacker, W. Miles (2015). Hohokam Canal Irrigation and the Formation of lrragric Anthrosols in the Middle Gila River Valley, Arizona. Geoarchaeology 30: 271.

R. K. Bocinsky, J. Rush, K. W. Kintigh, T. A. Kohler (2016). Exploration and Exploitation in the Macrohistory of the Prehispanic Pueblo Southwest. Science Advances 2(4): e1501532 (01 Apr 2016) http://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1501532

M. Hegmon, J. Freeman, K. W. Kintigh, M. C. Nelson, S. Oas, M. A. Peeples, A. L. Torvinen (2016). Marking and Making Difference: Representational Diversity in the US Southwest. American Antiquity 81: 253-272

K. A. Spielmann, M. A. Peeples, D. M. Glowacki, and A. J. Dugmore (2016). Early Warning Signals of Social Transformation: A Case Study from the US Southwest. PLoS ONE 11(10): e0163685. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0163685.

D. A. Muenchrath, J. A. Sandor, J. B. Norton, and J. A. Homburg (2017). A maize experiment in a traditional Zuni agroecosystem. Journal of Ethnobiology 37(2): 172-195.

J. A. Sandor and J. A. Homburg (2017). Anthropogenic soil change in ancient and traditional agricultural fields in arid to semiarid regions of the Americas. Journal of Ethnobiology 37(2): 196-217.

M. Hegmon and M. Peeples (2018) The Human Experience of Social Transformations: Insights from Comparative Archaeology. PLoS ONE 13(11): e0208060. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208060

M. Hegmon and M. C. Nelson (2018). The Diversity of the Postclassic Mimbres Periods (A.D. 1150-1450): Insights from Las Animas Village in Southwestern New Mexico. Kiva 84(3): 342-366.

K. W. Kintigh and S. E. Ingram (2018). Was the drought really responsible? Assessing statistical relationships between climate extremes and cultural transitions. Journal of Archaeological Science 89:25-31.

K. Kintigh and M. Nelson (2019). Challenges of Integrating Data and Knowledge. CFAS The Synthetic Report, Newsletter of the Coalition for Archaeological Synthesis 2(1): 2-4

O. Vésteinsson, M. Hegmon, G. Rice, J. Arneborg, and W. G. Russell (2019). Dimensions of inequality: Comparing the North Atlantic and the US Southwest. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 54: 172–191.

A. L. Torvinen and B. A. Nelson (2020). Refinement of the Chronology of La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico, Using Ceramic Seriation. Latin American Antiquity.

C. Strawhacker, G. Snitker, M. A. Peeples, A. P. Kinzig, K. W. Kintigh, J. Freeman, K. Bocinsky, B. Butterfield, S. Oas, M. C. Nelson, J. A. Sandor, K. A. Spielmann (2020). A Landscape Perspective on Climate-Driven Risks to Food Security: Exploring the Relationship between Climate and Social Transformations in the Prehispanic U.S. Southwest. American Antiquity. July 2020.

Book Chapters

M. Hegmon, J. Arneborg, A. J. Dugmore, G. Hambrecht, S. E. Ingram, K. W. Kintigh, T. H. McGovern, M. C. Nelson, M. A. Peeples, I. Simpson, K. A. Spielmann, R. Streeter and O. Vésteinsson (2014). The Human Experience of Social Change and Continuity: The Southwest and North Atlantic in the Interesting Times circa 1300. In Climates of Change: The Shifting Environment of Archaeology, edited by S. Kulyk, C. G. Tremain, and M. Sawyer, pp. 53-67. Proceedings of the 44th Annual Chacmool Conference, Chacmool Archaeological Association, University of Calgary.

B. A. Nelson, A. S. Z. Chase, M. Hegmon (2014). Comparative Landscapes: Transformative Relocation in the American Southwest and Mesoamerica. In The Resilience and Vulnerability of Ancient landscapes: Transforming Maya Archaeology through /HOPE. edited by A. F. Chase and V. L. Scarborough, Papers of the Archaeology Division of the American Anthropological Association 24: 171-182. Washington DC.

J. A. Sandor and J. A. Homburg (2015). Agricultural soils of the prehistoric Southwest: Known unknowns. In Traditional Arid Lands Agriculture: Understanding the Past for the Future, edited by S.E. Ingram and R.C. Hunt, p. 54-88. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

M. Hegmon, M. C. Nelson, K. G. Schollmeyer (2016). Experiencing Social Change: Life during the Mimbres Classic Transformation. In The Archaeology of the Human Experience. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, No 27, edited by M. Hegmon, pp. 54-73.

M. Hegmon (2016). Archaeology of the Human Experience: An Introduction. In The Archaeology of the Human Experience. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, No 27, edited by M. Hegmon, pp. 7-21.

A. L. Torvinen, M. Hegmon, A. P. Kinzig, M. C. Nelson, M. A. Peeples, K. G. Schollmeyer, C. Strawhacker, and L. Swantek (2016). Transformation without Collapse: Two cases from the U.S. Southwest. In Beyond Collapse: Archaeological Perspectives on Resilience, Revitalization, and Transformation in Complex Societies, edited by R. K. Faulseit, pp. 262-286. Proceedings of the 29th Annual SIU Visiting Scholar Conference, Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.

J. A. Freeman, A. Torvinen, B. A. Nelson, and J. M. Anderies (2017). Diversity, Reciprocity, and the Emergence of Equity-inequity Tradeoffs. In The Give and Take of Sustainability:Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives on Tradeoffs, edited by M. Hegmon, pp. 26-51. Cambridge University Press.

M. Hegmon (2017). Growth and Inter-generational Tradeoffs: Archaeological Perspectives from the Mimbres Region of the US Southwest. In The Give and Take of Sustainability: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives on Tradeoffs, edited by M. Hegmon, pp. 148-171. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

M. Hegmon (2017). Introduction: Multiple Perspectives on Tradeoffs. In The Give and Take of Sustainability: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives on Tradeoffs, edited by M. Hegmon, pp.1-25. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

S. E. Ingram (2017). Settlement Ecology in the Precontact North American Southwest. In Settlement Ecology of the Ancient Americas, edited by L. C. Kellett and E. E. Jones, pp. 85-110. Routledge.

M. C. Nelson, A. P. Kinzig, J. Arneborg, R. Streeter, S. E. Ingram (2017). Vulnerability to Food Insecurity: Tradeoffs and their Consequences. In The Give and Take of Sustainability: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives on Tradeoffs, edited by M. Hegmon, pp. 172-197. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

K. A. Spielmann and R. M. Aggarwal (2017). Household- vs. National-scale Food Storage: Perspectives on Food Security from Archaeology and Contemporary India. In The Give and Take of Sustainability: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives on Tradeoffs, edited by M. Hegmon, pp. 244-271. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

C. Strawhacker (2017). Historic O’odham Irrigated Agriculture and Colonial Forces on the Middle Gila River, Southern Arizona. In Transformations During the Colonial Era: Divergent Histories in the American Southwest, edited by J. Douglass and W. Graves, pp. 331-352. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.

C. Strawhacker, G. Snitker, K.A. Spielmann, M. Wasiolek, J. A. Sandor, A. P. Kinzig, K. W. Kintigh (2017). Risk Landscapes and Domesticated Landscapes: Food Security in the Salinas province. In Landscapes of Social Transformation in the Salinas Province and the Eastern Pueblo World, edited by K. A. Spielmann, pp 83-118. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

M. Hegmon, J. R. McGrath, F. M. O’Hara, and W. G. Russell (2018). Mimbres Designs in their Social Context. In New Perspectives on Mimbres Archaeology: Three Millennia of Human Occupation in the North American Southwest, edited by P. A. Gilman, R. Anyon, and B. Roth, pp. 149-168. University of Arizona Press.

S. E. Ingram (2018). Archaeological Identification of Human Sensitivity to Drought. In Water and Society from Ancient Times to the Present: Resilience, Decline, and Revival, edited by F. Sulas and I. Pikirayi, pp. 40-64. Taylor & Francis/Routledge. London and New York.

K. G. Schollmeyer, M. C. Nelson, and M. Hegmon (2018). Continuity and Change in the Eastern Mimbres Area after A.D. 1130. In New Perspectives on Mimbres Archaeology: Three Millennia of Human Occupation in the North American Southwest, edited by P. A. Gilman, R. Anyon, and B. Roth, pp. 193-208. University of Arizona Press.

K. G. Schollmeyer, M. W. Diehl, and J. A. Sandor (2018). Variability in Mimbres Food and Food Procurement. In New Perspectives on Mimbres Archaeology: Three Millennia of Human Occupation in the North American Southwest, edited by P. A. Gilman, R. Anyon, and B. Roth, pp. 169-192. University of Arizona Press.

Educational Websites

Hohokam Risks and Tradeoffs

http://geoalliance.asu.edu/BarkerHohokam

Educational website for k-12 teachers using archaeology and history

Hohokam Risks and Tradeoffs

http://www.saa.org/AbouttheSociety/EducationandOutreach/CurriculumCommitteeResources/tabid/1523/Default.aspx

Education website of the national professional organization of archaeologists – the Society for American Archaeology. Curriculum derived from archaeological research.

Note: Some of the publications listed are outcomes of collaborative work between this CNH funded group and other grant funded groups. Only those outcomes that include work conducted within the scope of this CNH grant were included.