Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Arizona, 2006.

Thesis (M.A.)--Arizona State University, 1999. / Cover title. "Printed with funding from the National Park Service Servicewide Intake Program." Shipping list no.: 99-0340-P. "December 1997." Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-59).

Thesis (M.A.)--Arizona State University, 1999. / Cover title. "Printed with funding from the National Park Service Servicewide Intake Program." Shipping list no.: 99-0340-P. "December 1997." Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-59).

The research discussed in this study involves examining Late Archaic settlement and subsistence practices in the Tucson Basin. The Late Archaic encompasses the time period from 3000 BP until the adoption of ceramics, ca. AD 200, and witness many changes in adaptation including a reduction in residential mobility and the adoption of cultigens. Data from excavations of Late Archaic sites in the Tucson Basin and elsewhere in the southern desert have documented agricultural villages dispersed along major waterways by 2500 BP. Much of the research has been limited to excavation of sites in single environmental zones, primarily the floodplain, however, and limited information on exploitation or occupation of other ecological zones has been available. This study uses a regional data base to examine Late Archaic occupation of all ecological zones in the Tucson Basin. The Tucson Basin Survey, a 100 percent survey of the Northern Tucson Basin, has provided a unique opportunity for interpreting Late Archaic settlement and subsistence. Late Archaic site distributions are analyzed and assemblage and other site data are used to determine potential roles of sites within the Late Archaic settlement system. The Tucson Basin environment is examined to determine its influence on settlement and subsistence practices. Existing models of Late Archaic settlement-subsistence systems are evaluated using the survey data, and three potential settlement-subsistence models are proposed.

University Indian Ruin is a Classic Period Hohokam platform mound village located in the eastern Tucson Basin. Although portions of the site are well understand, the spatial and social community of the village has not been thoroughly documented. This report seeks to define the community of UIR through archival research, public outreach, and spatial analysis using geographic information systems. The result is a conception of a dynamic community with considerable time depth, which was reliant on certain environmental features, and one that also conforms to the phenomenon of pan-Southwestern abandonment and aggregation in late prehistory.

The Marana Platform Mound Community (AZ AA:12:251[ASM]) in the Tucson Basin of southern Arizona provides a unique opportunity to examine the mechanisms of social organization within an early Classic Period Hohokam community. The role of the platform mound for integrative communal ritual or segregated elite-controlled activity is examined through faunal remains from the platform mound and nearby residential localities. Taxonomic diversity, relative abundance, and element distribution are used to measure the extent to which the platform mound served to integrate or distinguish site residents. Subtle differences in the diversity of taxa, the quantity of deposited faunal remains, and the quality of portions and taxa are indicative of differential access to resources between residents at the Platform Mound and residents in sites further away in the Tucson Basin. The findings support the current hypothesis that a dual mode of network and corporate strategy was used to organize the community.

The Hohokam Water Management Simulation (HWM) is a computer simulation for exploring the operation of the Hohokam irrigation systems in southern Arizona. The simulation takes a middle road between two common kinds of archaeological simulation: large-scale, detailed landscape and environmental reconstructions and highly abstract hypothesis-testing simulations. Given the apparent absence in the Hohokam context of a central authority, the specific aim of the HWM is approaching the Hohokam as a complex system, using principles such as resilience, robustness, and self-organization. The Hohokam case is reviewed, and general questions concerning how the irrigation systems operated are shown to subsume multiple crosscutting and unresolved issues. Existing proposals about the relevant aspects of Hohokam society and of its larger long-term trajectory are based on widely varying short- and long-term processes that invoke different elements, draw different boundaries, and operate at different spatial and temporal scales, and many rely on information that is only incompletely available. A framework for pproaching problems of this kind is put forward. A definition of modeling is offered that specifies its epistemological foundations, permissible patterns of inference, and its role in our larger scientific process. Invoking Logical Positivism, a syntactic rather than semantic view of modeling is proposed: modeling is the construction of sets of assertions about the world and deductions that can be drawn from them. This permits a general model structure to be offered that admits hypothetical or provisional assertions and the flexible interchange of model components of varying scope and resolution. Novel goals for archaeological inquiry fall from this flexible approach; these move from specific reconstruction to a search for more universal and general dynamics. A software toolkit that embodies these principles is introduced: the Assertion-Based Computer Modeling toolkit (ABCM), which integrates simulation with the logical architecture of a relational database, and further provides an easy means for linking models of natural and social processes (including agent-based modeling). The application of this to the Hohokam context is described, and an extended example is presented that demonstrates the flexibility, utility and challenges of the approach. An attached file provides sample output.

Obsidian source attribution has become an important tool in examining many aspects of prehistoric lifeways including exchange, identity, social and economic boundaries, and many others. This thesis provides a comprehensive look at obsidian spatial distributions in the Tucson Basin Hohokam Pre-Classic period, ca. A.D. 750-1150. By examining currently available data and providing new data from three sites in the northern Tucson Basin conclusions about trends in spatial and temporal use of obsidian are made. Obsidian procurement and spatial distribution in the Tucson Basin appears to be distinct from neighboring regions and continuity with later Classic period, ca. A.D. 1150-1450 obsidian use is likely. There appears to be a clear preference for western obsidian sources in the northern Tucson basin, while the southern basin may have a slight preference for materials to the east. The limited obsidian data for the Colonial period, ca. A.D. 750-950 suggests that its distribution was controlled by similar processes to those observed in the Sedentary period, ca. A.D. 950-1150. This research further suggests that strong avenues are open for future research.

Anthropologists, and increasingly archaeologists, are using the word 'ontology' with escalating frequency. In Philosophy, where it originated, several subdivisions exist within the discipline, all of which deal with grouping things that exist into categories. What can archaeologists learn by taking this concept from philosophy and applying it to archaeology? Further, how do we recognize the ontologies of others, particularly those who did not leave a written record, in the archaeological record? The way that people categorize things plays a role in how they are disposed. Patterns in depositional practices emerge as visible traces in the archaeological record that allow us to recognize other people's ontologies. This is an important concept for archaeologists interested in addressing prehistoric value, since the value of a given object cannot be assessed without knowing how people in the past categorized things. In my work with anthropomorphic Hohokam figurines from the Phoenix Basin, I use an ontological approach to explore the life histories of figurines from their manufacture, through deposition in the archaeological record, and subsequent excavation in modern times. I then compare the figurine assemblage from recent excavations at La Villa (AZ T:12:148[ASM]) to see how it fits in the identified pattern.

My research centers on changes in personhood, identity and funerary rituals from the Early Agricultural Period to the Classic Period in the Tucson Basin. The three core papers of my dissertation represent submissions to peer-review journals or book chapters, all of which are connected by similar research themes. The first paper examines changes in funerary rituals from the Early Agricultural Period (2100 B.C.-A.D. 50 ) to the Early Preclassic Period (A.D. 475-750) and how these changes modified social relationships between the dead, their families and the community. A total of 21 archaeological sites and 436 burials were analyzed. The predominant mortuary rituals in the Early Agricultural Period were inhumations characterized by variations in body position and location, possibly emphasizing individuality. These rituals changed in the Preclassic Period as cremation became the dominant practice. Cremations during this period were mainly secondary deposits with low quantities of bone located in cemeteries within habitation courtyard groups. Social group membership was emphasized through these cremations. Results suggest that triggers for changes in funerary rituals through time were multicausal, but these changes are reflective of emerging group identities with strong social cohesion, consistent with patterns observed in other archaeological evidence from the area. The second paper explores how the Preclassic Hohokam (A.D. 475-1150) of the Tucson Basin created different pathways to personhood for the dead. This consisted of examining how bodies were treated within cremation practices at four recently excavated Tucson Basin Hohokam archaeological sites and through consideration of different ethnographic accounts of cremation practices among Native American groups from the Southwestern United States. Historical accounts of cremation practices utilized in this work originate from the Pima (Akimel O'odham), Tohono O'odham, and several Yuman-speaking groups. Based on archaeological and linguistic evidence, the ancestors of these historic groups had ancestral connections with the Hohokam. Results of my research suggest dynamic transitions of personhood occurred at death while these transitions occurred both with the dead as well as the living. Subsequent to the cremation pyre bodies were transformed into "body-objects" and continued to evoke memories of the deceased person's life. Furthermore, at these events mutually-identifying relationships were created, transformed or destroyed through interactions of the community, family and deceased. The third paper examines the identification of and changes in aspects of personhood among the Tucson Basin Hohokam from the Preclassic (A.D. 475-1150) to Classic periods (A.D. 1150-1450/1500). This is done by examining the biological profile, posthumous treatment of the body and mortuary practices of remains of 764 individuals from seven sites. Cremation was the predominant mortuary practice in the Tucson Basin during the Preclassic and Classic periods. However, inhumation also co-occurred at lower frequencies, particularly for fetus and infants, possibly due to the undeveloped form of self that these individuals had within the society. Through time cremation rituals changed particularly for individuals older than 15 years at death and adults. In the Preclassic Period, after the body was burned, the remains were fragmented, divided and distributed as inalienable possessions among families and within specific networks. This suggests a social construction of self that was more relational, part-person and part-object. In the Classic Period, these practices decreased and the remains were not divided but left in place or transferred almost wholly to a single secondary deposit. The perceptions of personhood in the Classic Period changed to a self that was considered as bounded units and more-whole even after its transformation during the cremation fire. It is possible that this transition through time occurred as a result of more centralized and private rituals, and by a general decrease in emotive networks. The changes in mortuary rituals are similar to broader sociopolitical changes observed in the Classic Period where an increase in social differentiation and complexity has been postulated.