Negotiating community and household interests in early irrigation communities of the Sonoran Desert

Authors

  • James T. Watson

Keywords:

Early Agricultural period, mortuary feature, irrigation communities.

Abstract

Early Agricultural period (circa 2100 B.C.-A.D. 50) archaeological sites embody the transition from foraging to the establishment of permanent, irrigation-based  agricultural  villages  in  the  Sonoran  Desert  region  of the southwest US/northwest Mexico.   Developing concepts of corporate organization would have created a need for mediating social identities and interests between lineages and the community, and mortuary practices provide one mechanism likely employed to mitigate social tensions among households.   Early Agricultural period normative mortuary practices are largely  characterized  by  single,  flexed primary  inhumation  with  limited funerary objects and little apparent expression of social di?erentiation.  The performance of mortuary rituals contributing to these material patterns likely functioned to incorporate a shared community identity, while placement within sites legitimized household interests through descent and inheritance. However, some variability is also observed throughout the period, including numerous   body   configurations,  multiple   burials,   and   cremation   and could reflect the expression of personal social identities and/or di?erent cosmological dogma.

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Published

2023-07-27

How to Cite

T. Watson, J. (2023). Negotiating community and household interests in early irrigation communities of the Sonoran Desert. Noroeste De México, (4), 181–215. Retrieved from https://revistas.inah.gob.mx/index.php/noroestedemexico/article/view/19640

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