Chaco Pueblo Period: Society and Politics
Different ideas about how Chaco was organized and what it meant. This excerpt uses the opening paragraph and the sections on society and politics and on the regional system. It leaves out the sections on architecture and on the environment and subsistence, and the book list.
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The Pueblo Period in Chaco (AD 700-1300) produced most of the archaeological material culture managed by the park. It was recovered from over 2,300 sites. The core area of Chaco Canyon may have been an administrative and economic center with ritual importance. It may have joined together people across a large region of the Four Corners from the ninth through the twelfth centuries. This society (or these societies) was complex, almost as complex as those documented in the central Mexican Mayan and Aztec cultures. But it was very different from the Pueblo societies at historical contact. Most of the modern Pueblo tribes and the Navajo Nation see strong historical and cultural connections to these remains and earlier ones. They also see connections to the natural resources in the park.
Society and Politics
The social and political complexity of the “Chaco system” is still debated. Even simple questions have not been answered, like how many people lived there. The level of social complexity depends partly on that number. Anthropologists often rank social complexity on a scale. At one end are small egalitarian bands of related kin. At the other end are large states divided into ranked social and economic levels.
There are two theories about where Chaco falls on this scale. One theory says Chaco was basically an egalitarian, clan-based tribal system. The other says Chaco was a socially stratified chiefdom. This debate is hard to settle for a reason. Chaco lacks some traits linked to chiefdoms. These include a clear elite class with inherited rights, and social markers of elite status such as special ornaments, insignia, or dress. They also include evidence that some people had better access to exotic goods, and different burial practices for elites and commoners.
On the other hand, other markers of chiefdoms are present, especially monumental architecture. Also, differences in height among the people buried there show that some people had different access to food. There is one elite burial at Pueblo Bonito that is certainly different from all other burials found in the canyon. Turquoise is found at both small and great houses. But the exotic macaws and special cylindrical vessels are found only at great houses.
Regional System
Early archaeological studies focused on the great houses in Chaco Canyon itself. Then people noticed that buildings outside the canyon were similar in style and size. Examples are Aztec Ruins, Salmon Ruins, Bis sa’ani, and Kin Ya’a. In the 1970s, the NPS Chaco Project documented Chacoan-related communities throughout the San Juan Basin. Each community has a great house with Chaco-style kivas. Small homes surround it. There are often prehistoric roads or other earthen buildings. The 39 sites managed by the Chaco Protection Sites Program are part of the prehistoric regional system. It is made up of several hundred major sites.
This wider view changed theories about what Chaco Canyon meant. Now the canyon is seen in several ways. It may have been an economic center that shared goods out to many people. It may have been a ritual and ceremonial center of knowledge known only to a few. It may have been the political center of the region. Or it may have been a site for regular pilgrimage that helped people exchange goods and materials.
The exact nature of the Chacoan regional system is still unclear. But Chaco Canyon appears to have been its center for a fairly short time. By around AD 1150, people moved away from the canyon. They went north to the Aztec and Northern San Juan regions and west to the Chuska slopes. By AD 1300, the San Juan Basin was mostly left empty. People moved to the Zuni/Acoma region, the Hopi Mesas, and the Rio Grande Valley.