How far from Chaco to Orayvi? Quantifying inequality among Pueblo households

Abstract

Recent studies of household inequality based on the distribution of floor area indicate that the distribution of wealth varied significantly across time and space in the prehispanic upland US Southwest. In this study, we first examine inequality among households from Orayvi ca. 1901 to contextualize the patterns of inequality we then report among ancestral Pueblo households in the Basketmaker II-Pueblo III periods from the central Mesa Verde region, middle San Juan region, Chaco Canyon, and the Chuska Valley. At Orayvi just prior to the 1906 split, inequality was relatively low, in line with values typical for horticultural societies. Most inequality at Orayvi was among households rather than among clans and phratries, though clans were more wealth-differentiated than were phratries, factions, or other groups we examined. Degree of ancestral Pueblo wealth inequality varied considerably through time, with levels exceeding those calculated for Orayvi primarily during the Pueblo II period. Wealth disparities exceeding those at Orayvi arose in the Chuska Valley and Middle San Juan regions prior to the marked increase we document at Chaco, suggesting that populations from these areas may have been involved in the development of early great house construction at Chaco Canyon.