Population Circulation and the Transformation of Ancient Zuni Communities

7. Social Interaction Networks

157 ChAPTer seVen social Interaction networks The final piece of my investigation of population circulation and community organization in the thirteenth-century Zuni region is an examination of variability in social interaction networks. Movement and social organization are both fundamentally structured by a variety of interactions among individuals and diverse types of social groups. studies of interaction also serve as an effective complement to the more traditional emphasis on settlement patterns in community studies because they enable a fuller examination of the social processes implicated in creating community- and intraregional-scale social organization (Yaeger and Canuto 2000:11). examinations of pottery circulation as a proxy for intraregional interaction have been particularly effective for tracing the formation of both bounded community organization and crosscutting social groups in the southwest (e.g., Abbott 2000; huntley 2008; Kantner et al. 2000). These studies frequently document more complex social networks than might be hypothesized based on naturalized models of community organization . In this chapter I focus on intersite variation in patterns of interaction within the valley in order to investigate the potential role of social diversity and differences among the small-scale, room block– dwelling groups in the creation of new, larger scale social units. As in previous chapters, these analyses document a surprising amount of variation in social interaction at multiple scales, much of which is only understandable in light of contextualizing el Morro Valley populations within a wider network of population circulation, fluid social boundaries , and social change encompassing much of the Zuni region and beyond. 158 population circulation and zuni communities Ceramic Movement, Population Circulation, and Social Diversity Ceramic movement can be directly linked to population circulation through the transport of pottery by mobile groups (Beck 2009; Zedeño 1994, 1998, 2002) or indirectly through ceramic exchanges that follow key channels of material and information flows that often arise in contexts of migration (Bernardini 2005; Clark 2001; Duff 2002; Lyons 2003). Pottery is likely to be transported during the settlement of new areas either to ensure that necessary tools are immediately available upon arrival or so that domestic activities can be performed en route (Zedeño 1998:465–66). Pots may have been commonly transported during short, intraregional moves that could have been completed relatively quickly or over multiple, back-and-forth trips. The analyses of chapter 5 suggest that moves of these sorts were the primary sources of settlers in the el Morro Valley, as most people likely arrived from nearby areas. The el Morro Valley InAA samples probably include pots that were moved into the valley through both residential movement and exchange, but it is nearly impossible to differentiate between the two processes. either process of pottery transfer would have required the physical movement of people between the el Morro Valley and other areas and contributed to the overall network of population circulation in the region. regardless of this problem, however, by tracking access to pottery from different areas among newly arrived groups, one can examine potential differences in social ties and, by extension, social origins and diversity. A number of southwest studies have documented the formation of socially diverse communities composed of migrant groups with variable geographic origins and material culture traditions (Bernardini 2005; Clark 2001; Cordell 1995; Duff 2002; eckert 2008; hegmon, nelson, and ruth 1998; hill et al. 2004; Lyons 2003; neuzil 2008; schwartz 1970; Zedeño 2002). Many of these studies address migration across long distances and in some cases across archaeological culture boundaries . It is often difficult to specify exactly what qualities marked group distinctiveness (i.e., whether migrants were perceived as different based on clan, ethnic, religious, or linguistic affiliation or other markers), but it is reasonable to assume that many of these movements resulted in the formation of new coalescent social groups comprised of people with few or weak preexisting social ties and a wide range of life histories. similar differences, albeit at a smaller scale, were likely at play during the largely intraregional migration to the el Morro Valley, as settlers converged from nearby areas and a few more distant places. These small-scale differences —in life experience, histories of movement, religious participation, and so on—would have provided variability in the structure out of which new el Morro communities were formed. Social Interaction Networks 159 The coalescence of migrant peoples and resulting social diversity has been recognized as a context conducive to social change by southwest archaeologists (Cordell...