Mimbres during the twelfth century: abandonment, continuity, and reorganization.

Mimbres during the twelfth century: abandonment, continuity, and reorganization. MARGARET C. NELSON. Mimbres during the twelfth century:abandonment, continuity, and reorganization. xiii+236 pages, 33 figures,21 tables. 1999. Tucson (AZ): University of Arizona (body, education) University of Arizona - The University was founded in 1885 as a Land Grant institution with a three-fold mission of teaching, research and public service. Press; 0-8165-1868-8hardback $35. The University of Arizona published three excellent volumes in 1999that examine the concepts surrounding and the process and results ofabandonment in arid environments like the American Southwest.Varien's book is centred in the Mesa Verde region (also known asthe Northern San Juan San Juan, city, ArgentinaSan Juan(săn wän, Span. sän hwän), city (1991 pop. 353,476), capital of San Juan prov., W Argentina. It is a commercial and industrial center in an agricultural region. region) while Nelson's is centred in theBlack Range of New Mexico New Mexico,state in the SW United States. At its northwestern corner are the so-called Four Corners, where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah meet at right angles; New Mexico is also bordered by Oklahoma (NE), Texas (E, S), and Mexico (S). , on the eastern edge of the Mimbres region.Finally, Cameron's book is an ethnoarchaeological study of theaffects on architecture of village fissioning and partial abandonmentusing the Hopi village of Orayvi as a case-study. All three volumes argue that archaeologists need to re-examine theconcepts of migration and abandonment we currently use. They share threecentral themes regarding this issue. First, sedentism and mobility arenot dichotomous di��chot��o��mous?adj.1. Divided or dividing into two parts or classifications.2. Characterized by dichotomy.di��chot states. Rather, all groups utilize both strategies tosome degree and at some scale; in Varien's words, they arecomplementary, rather than oppositional, strategies. Amonghorticulturalists in arid landscapes, such as the American Southwest,movement is a part of the land-use strategy. From this perspective,household movement, and therefore abandonment, is a fairly common event.Community abandonment, though somewhat less frequent, can be seen as anextension of this strategy. However, as Nelson's study points out,abandonment of aggregated communities does not automatically mean theentire region is abandoned. In fact, complete regional abandonmentitself is considerably rarer. The second theme is that abandonment (beit at the household, community, or regional level) should not be viewedas the end of a group, but rather, the movement of a group into a newrelationship with its environment. To quote Nelson (p. 22), abandonment`is a strategy of resituating, both socially and ecologically, andperhaps even ideologically. It can take various forms, occur at variousscales, and promote continuity or sever TO SEVER, practice. When defendants who are sued jointly have separate defences, they may in general sever, that is, each one rely on his own separate defence; each may plead severally and insist on his own separate plea. See Severance. relationships among people andbetween people and their land'. Therefore, to understandabandonment and mobility, we must examine the relationships betweenhouseholds and between households and the environment. The third themeis related to understanding these relationships. Specifically, becausethe abandonment of a house, a community and/or a region is based on thedecision of individual households, studying household agency, ratherthan some regional crisis, is the key to understanding the process. BothNelson and Varien argue that access to land and other resources is aparamount concern for households when making mobility decisions. Inother words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke"put differently , mobility is part of a household's subsistence subsistence,n the state of being supported or remaining alive with a minimum of essentials. strategy, particularly in arid landscapes, and needs to be examined assuch. Cameron's study is concerned with understanding therelationship between architectural structures, specifically households,and the people who inhabit them. This relationship is particularlyinteresting to archaeologists because it has the potential to aid us inunderstanding prehistoric social behaviour. At the same time, it isvexing because the architectural remains studied by archaeologists aresomewhat static while the households who inhabit them are dynamic interms of membership and alliance formation. In her case-study, sheexamines architectural changes at the Hopi village of Orayvi between1871 and 1948. Orayvi is particularly relevant to archaeologist workingwith small-scale horticulturalists because it was the locus of an eventthat appears to have been fairly frequent in prehistory prehistory,period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to . Specifically,in 1906, the village fissioned, and almost half of the population leftto form a new community. Cameron uses census data, historicalphotographs and maps of Orayvi to examine architectural changesassociated with village growth, fissioning and partial abandonment. Ashouseholds change due to domestic cycles and demographic shifts, thearchitectural units in which they live also change. They are added onto, they are remodelled, they are abandoned and building materials Building materials used in the construction industry to create .These categories of materials and products are used by and construction project managers to specify the materials and methods used for . arerecycled. Additionally, after the village fissioned, not all structuresthat were in ideal locations were reinhabited by the individuals whoremained. Rather, while some reoccupation occurred, a considerablenumber of new buildings were constructed, resulting in a shift in thelocation of occupation within the settlement. The reasons for this aremany. One of the most important is that abandonment of a structure atOrayvi does not mean that use rights to the space are forfeited.Households that left the village frequently returned to retrievebuilding materials from their former homes. The recycling of building materials from abandoned structures alsois apparent in prehistory, as Varien's study of the Mesa Verderegion demonstrates. Residential movement by households within the MesaVerde area was fairly frequent for approximately three centuries priorto final abandonment of the area at the end of the 13th century. Varienargues that household movement and the resulting abandonment ofstructures and villages during this time was tied to the domestic cycleand competition between households for resources. Despite thiscompetition, however, social ties remained and moves were generally ofshort distance allowing personal alliances to be maintained. From thisperspective, villages may have been abandoned, but communities, in thesocial sense, were maintained. The persistence of communities resultedin continued ties to previous villages. More specifically, even afterabandonment, previous habitations remained important to households.Through sophisticated studies of the material culture assemblages leftbehind, ceramic discard rates and structure collapse, he and hiscolleagues at Crow Canyon Archaeological Research Center havereconstructed the abandonment sequence within sites throughout theregion and the subsequent recycling of building materials from abandonedstructures. Most frequently recycled are the timbers used as roofsupports. The probability that roof supports were recycled is related toa number of factors, including the likelihood of reoccupation of thesite, the amount of time households had to prepare for the movement to anew site location and the distance to the new architectural structure An architectural structure is a free-standing, immobile outdoor construction.The structure may be permanent. Typical examples include buildings and nonbuilding structures such as bridges, dams, electricity pylons, and radio masts. . Nelson examines mobility on a larger scale than either Cameron orVarien. Specifically, she examines changes in regional settlementpattern and land-use strategies in an area after large aggregatedvillages are abandoned. By AD 1150, large aggregated sites in theMimbres Valley had been abandoned and the Mimbres interaction sphere hadcollapsed. In the past, it has been assumed that the entire Mimbresregion also had been abandoned at this time. Nelson's studies inthe Black Range, on the eastern edge of the Mimbres region, demonstratethat abandonment of the area was not complete. Rather, at least some ofthe population stayed in the area. Field houses and farming villages inareas adjacent to the Mimbres Valley show continuous use throughout theperiod in which the aggregated villages were being abandoned, andincrease in population following abandonment. Nelson's meticulousand extremely well documented work demonstrates remodelling of thesestructures, in many cases converting structures appropriate for seasonaluse to year-round habitations. Additionally, following aggregate villageabandonment, these sites grow in size with the addition of newhouseholds to the existing structures. Further, floral and faunal fau��na?n. pl. fau��nas or fau��nae1. (used with a sing. or pl. verb) Animals, especially the animals of a particular region or period, considered as a group.2. analysis demonstrates a remarkable continuity in the exploitation ofdomesticated do��mes��ti��cate?tr.v. do��mes��ti��cat��ed, do��mes��ti��cat��ing, do��mes��ti��cates1. To cause to feel comfortable at home; make domestic.2. To adopt or make fit for domestic use or life.3. a. and wild resources at these sites through time. While theBlack Range sites are neither numerous nor large enough to house theentire population living in the Mimbres Valley prior to AD 1150, they dodemonstrate that at least some of the population remained in the areaafter the Mimbres system collapsed. This fact forces us to reexamine re��ex��am��inealso re-ex��am��ine ?tr.v. re��ex��am��ined, re��ex��am��in��ing, re��ex��am��ines1. To examine again or anew; review.2. Law To question (a witness) again after cross-examination. ourassumptions about collapse and regional abandonment. It is clear thatnot all households react in the same way during periods of transition.Nelson argues one reason individuals and households may choose to remainin an area which is being abandoned by others is their lack of strongties with individuals outside the area that can be exploited in times ofneed. This contention is undermined to some degree, however, by the factthat households remaining in the area after AD 1150 have extensive tiesoutside the Black Range. Despite this fact, however", Nelson'swork has clearly demonstrated that we need to rethink our assumptionsabout regional abandonment. On-going research by Nelson and hercolleagues on the problems of why some households decide to leave theregion and others remain should help to clarify the process of householddecision making. TAMMY STONE, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado atDenver :For the university encompassing this school, please see University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center HistoryIn 1912, the University of Colorado established a downtown Denver campus to meet the needs of the city's rapidly expanding , 2130 S Race Street, Denver CO 80208-0174, USA.tstone@castle.cudenver.edu