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9. The Social and Cultural Contexts of the Central Mesa Verde Region during the Thirteenth-Century Migrations
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The Social and Cultural Contexts of the Central Mesa Verde Region during the Thirteenth-Century Migrations Donna M. Glowacki 9 Between AD 1220 and 1290, the northern San Juan region went from being one of the most densely populated areas of the prehispanic Southwest to being entirely depopulated. Explanations for this widespread departure emphasize drought, resource depletion, and ensuing violence as prime stimuli underlying the depopulation (Cordell 2000; Haas and Creamer 1993; Kohler et al. 2008; Kuckelman 2002:250; LeBlanc 1999; Lipe 1995:159–162; Varien, Van West, and Patterson 2000). Yet we also know these factors do not adequately account for how this large and densely populated area became uninhabited by the end of the 1200s, as they would not have forced everyone to leave the region. Violence, drought, and resource depletion have a variable effect on populations because they are structured by local conditions and mediated by social institutions and individual actions (e.g., Field 2004; Shimada et al. 1991:263). In addition, drought and resource depletion were not uniformly felt across the northern San Juan region (Ryan, Adams, and Duff 2007; Van West 1994; Van West and Dean 2000; Varien et al. 2007), which suggests that at least parts of this region could have sustained population. Despite this opportunity, the northern San Juan was completely depopulated by the end of the thirteenth century. Environmental fluctuations and their impact on agricultural productivity , in particular, have played a central role in explaining the depopulation of the northern San Juan (Cordell et al. 2007; Kohler et al. 2008; Kohler and Van West 1996; Varien et al. 1996:104–105, 2000). Complete regional depopulation is not a predestined outcome of drought and poor agricultural yield, however. For example, during the severe drought of the mid-1100s, people living in the highly aggregated pueblos of the Classic Mimbres in southwestern New Mexico chose to move into small, dispersed hamlets to mitigate drought conditions by maximizing Social and Cultural Contexts 201 land use instead of leaving the region (Hegmon, Nelson, and Ruth 1998; Nelson 2000). Various strategies are and have been used for coping with drought and other climatic shifts, including food storage, agricultural intensification,diversification,exchange,short-distancemovements,and reorganization (Braun and Plog 1982; Cashdan 1990; Colson 1980; Halstead and O’Shea 1989; Minnis 1996; Rautman 1993). The responses that a given population selects depend on the magnitude of the situation balanced with a desire to be able to reverse the response if conditions improve (Halstead and O’Shea 1989:4; Minnis 1996:71). Thus, I assume that a widespread, long-distance population movement is a last resort, and its selection implies that all other options have been exhausted. In the northern San Juan region, various strategies were used to cope with climatic downturns. Although some people likely left the region during the severe drought in the mid-1100s, one of the outcomes of this difficult time was also increased population aggregation (Glowacki 2006; Varien et al. 2007: fig. 5D) rather than widespread population dispersal , as occurred in the Mimbres region. For example, the population of large villages established prior to the mid-1100s, such as the Lowry complex, Yellow Jacket Pueblo, and the Goodman Point complex, increased (VEP I database v5.3), and new aggregated villages such as Woods Canyon Pueblo and Yucca House were constructed (Churchill, ed., 2002; Glowacki 2001:44; Ortman et al. 2000:127–130). By the end of the 1200s, however, emigration from the region was the predominant strategy for coping with the prevailing conditions, including drought and poor agricultural yield. Given that other options and strategies were available to mitigate the poor climatic and agricultural conditions and that there seem to have been areas that remained agriculturally viable, why not stay? What were the other contributing factors that led to the decision to leave the northern San Juan? The response to poor environmental and climatic conditions, the permanence of the response, and the scale of any resulting migration depends on both the natural and social landscape (Minnis 1996:60). Our working models accounting for the natural landscape and paleoclimate are based on a wealth of data (e.g., Kohler, this vol., and Wright, this vol.), but more emphasis needs to be directed toward delineating the social landscape—the economic, political, and religious organizations and interaction networks defining social relationships—if we are truly 202 Donna M. Glowacki to understand what transpired. It is through these social mechanisms and institutions that poor environmental conditions were successfully mitigated...