Social change and skeletal trauma in the Point of Pines region (∼AD 400--1450) of the American Southwest

This project assesses potential relationships between human behavior and social change within the Point of Pines region of the American Southwest. This study examines skeletal data (n= 518) from 10 archaeological sites that span a roughly 1000 year period. These data are employed to determine if individuals from the Mogollon Highlands of east-central Arizona demonstrate patterning of traumatic lesions indicative of changes in subsistence practices and interpersonal conflict.; Archaeologists have devoted considerable effort to studying the prehistoric movement of migrants across the landscape and their subsequent interaction within host communities. One of the best known cases is the distinctive roomblock at Point of Pines, which was founded by migrants from the (northern) Kayenta region ca. AD 1265. This research, which identified migrant individuals using a combination of skeletal and archaeological data, suggests that Kayenta migrants were present in the Point of Pines community as early as AD 1000, long before the roomblock was constructed. Thus the migrants who constructed the distinctive roomblock may have been part of an already established migration stream into the area.; Individuals occupying the Mogollon Highlands during the earliest periods relied on a diet emphasizing small-scale cultivation with reliance on wild resources. Over time, agricultural foods comprised an ever-increasing proportion of the community subsistence base. This research indicated that changes in subsistence-related activities associated with an increased reliance on farmed crops did not increase the risk of traumatic lesions that can be attributed to occupational activities.; The middle occupation period was a time of increasing aggregation, but this work demonstrated that the aggregation did not intensify violent competition for prime agricultural and foraging lands. The latest occupational period was associated with environmental degradation and greater migrant influx, resulting in increased levels of conflict. Contrary to expectations that new migrants stimulated social tensions that would have resulted in violence against women and children, the skeletal data indicate that social tensions did not increase with the migrant influx. At no time period were migrants, women, or children frequent targets of aggression. This work also reveals that during all time periods, conflict was relatively limited and generally non-lethal.