Population Circulation and the Transformation of Ancient Zuni Communities

5. Geography of Population Circulation

89 ChAPTer FIVe Geography of Population Circulation Archaeologists have been more successful at exploring the geography of mobility than perhaps any other parameter of population circulation. The geography of mobility can be defined through many of the traditional methods of archaeology, including settlement pattern analyses and the identification of artifacts that have been moved from their location of production. Yet these studies reveal only an incomplete view of ancient population circulation that emphasizes permanent residential moves, activities that consistently result in the discard of artifacts, and economic networks. The myriad of shorter term movements engaged in by past people is often undocumented. To address some of these shortcomings, I present a two-pronged approach to exploring mobility in this chapter. This approach relies on combining insights from ethnographic studies of mobility, in this case accounts of historic Zuni movements that have left few archaeological traces on the landscape but were nonetheless crucial in shaping regional population circulation, with an examination of the movement of multiple types of artifacts that would have been transferred through mobility of various sorts within the Zuni region and beyond. This combined effort identifies multiple circuits of population circulation that would have been implicated in the formation of new settlements in the el Morro Valley during the AD 1200s. Historic Zuni Land Use and Mobility Although great strides have been made in recent years to improve the archaeological study of the roles of individual sites and people in larger 90 population circulation and zuni communities landscapes, many of these treatments are still partial. Unfortunately, many movements that are vital in the creation of cultural landscapes, such as for hunting or ceremony, are largely invisible archaeologically (although see Bradley 2000; Potter 2004; snead 2008; Van Dyke 2007). Many of the movements by Zuni people that I discuss in this section leave few or no lasting traces on the landscape around Zuni Pueblo yet are important components of Zuni subsistence, identity, and religion. Despite the difficulties in identifying these types of mobility strategies or processes of landscape construction through the archaeological record alone, archaeologists should not ignore their important role in landscape use and change and the creation of networks of population circulation. The Zuni have had to, and continue to, confront many of the same spatial challenges of regional climate, geography, and ecology that would have affected ancient mobility processes in the region. Although the details of historic Zuni mobility patterns may differ from those of the ancient past, the general configuration and spatial scale were likely similar. examination of general characteristics of historic mobility, such as overall geographic scale and scheduling, and their linkage to underlying ecological and geographic factors, provides insights into how these factors would have been addressed in the past. The inferred parameters of less archaeologically visible movements can then be compared to inferences about the geography, frequency, and intensity of mobility derived from archaeological data sets, such as those analyzed in chapter 4 and at the end of this chapter. Bernardini (2005) has analyzed hopi migration traditions in a similar, pattern-oriented fashion in order to infer the social configuration and effects of migrations on the Colorado Plateau in the AD 1300s. his study identified general patterns in hopi migration traditions that could be compared to information in the archaeological record to provide new insights into how migration proceeded and affected social diversity and interaction. A similar pattern-oriented approach can be used to infer the social effects of ancient landscape use (schachner 2011a; Zedeño 2000). ethnographic work began quite early in the Zuni area with the stevenson expedition of the 1870s, enabling the documentation of Zuni mobility strategies prior to extensive euro-American settlement of the area and resulting changes in local ecology and economy (Cushing 1896; stevenson 1904). Although this early work provides an excellent, baseline depiction of Zuni landscape use in the 1800s, most studies of this topic have occurred in the last 30 years as outside scholars have collaborated with members of the Zuni tribe to improve the documentation of the geographic scope and economic, social, and religious significance of Zuni landscape use (Duff et al. 2008; eggan 1980; Ferguson 1996, 2007; Ferguson and Anyon 2001; Ferguson and hart 1985; hart 1980). Many of Geography of Population Circulation 91 these studies were conducted in order to document Zuni claims to land and resources lost since Us control of the area began in 1846 (eggan 1980...