‘Circling the wagons’ and community formation: interpreting circular villages in the archaeological record

Abstract

In some respects, the circular village layout might appear to be the ultimate expression of an egalitarian and highly integrated communal society, one in which individual needs are clearly subsumed to the needs of the community as a whole. Cross-cultural studies in Amazonia and the eastern United States, however, suggest that this form of village organization may not be tied so closely to internal social organization as to regional context. The circular village layout may have been important in creating an uneasy but workable group identity vis-à-vis outsiders within a specific social context: that of regional demographic change, social uncertainty and violent inter-village conflict. Recent research in central New Mexico indicates that this regional context may also have been an important factor behind the construction of the little-known circular pueblo at Gran Quivira, Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument.