The primary objective of this research is to understand the nature of social identity in communities that have experienced migration events and how the process of aggregation affects the differential expression of social identity on public and private scales. Given the present day extent of migration and large scale movement of people on a global scale, insight into how integration does - or does not take place - is of direct practical relevance. Archaeological examples permit such an examination within an extended time framework.
Under the guidance of Dr. E. Charles Adams, Claire S. Barker will explore the relationship between social identity, artifact style, and communities of practice in the late prehispanic U.S. Southwest. This research will investigate how the style associated with methods of manufacture can be an indicator of social identity. During the A.D. 1200s and 1300s, large-scale migration and aggregation into large settlements occurred throughout the U.S. Southwest. During this period of demographic upheaval, people were coming into contact and living with different, socially distant groups. Such a situation would bring diverse individual and community identities into contact and, potentially, conflict. This project will focus on three broad issues. How powerful was the process of social integration in aggregated communities? How does the social identity expressed through everyday household objects differ from the social identity expressed in objects that were used in public contexts? Is identity differently expressed at sites that experienced differing degrees of migration and aggregation? These issues will be explored through analysis of style in corrugated cooking pottery dating to the 13th and 14th century from the sites of the Homol'ovi settlement cluster located in Northeastern Arizona.
In archaeology, the study of social identity and cultural practice through ceramics largely has focused on decorated pottery. However, the importance of studying utility wares is often overlooked. By studying these issues through analysis of everyday objects, the detritus of commonplace domestic activity, the proposed research will demonstrate the value of the everyday for understanding the social lives of people and communities. By focusing on one settlement cluster and the sites contained therein, this project will approach identity formation and maintenance from a micro-regional, multi-scalar perspective that will produce a nuanced understanding of the effects of migration and aggregation on the expression of social identity.
This project will use collections held by the Arizona State Museum. Stewardship and preservation are among the most important principles of archaeological scholarship; in situ archaeological sites and artifacts are irreplaceable. By making use of existing archaeological collections, this project both preserves the in situ archaeological record and increases the attention given to the collections residing in the Arizona State Museum. This research will improve the availability of the information housed in these collections by collecting new data and synthesizing previously unpublished data. Further, this research will focus on sites and material culture associated with the ancestors of the modern Hopi tribe. A better understanding of the migration history of the Homol'ovi settlement cluster and the social processes that operated within and between the sites in the Homol'ovi settlement area will be significant both to scholars and to descendent communities. Finally, this research will contribute to a better understanding of migration, aggregation, and the processes of social integration, relevant to all societies, past and present.
