Social Complexity Among the Lowland Virgin Anasazi

Abstract

Burials from the site of Main Ridge provide an important test of recent assertions that Anasazi societies in southern Nevada were chiefdoms. Six of forty-five burials included shell or turquoise ornaments, and the quantity of associations ranged from one to twenty-one items. Despite this variability, the burial population does not show the strong associations among burial location, kinds of associations and quantities of associations to be expected of a ranked society.