THE HOHOKAM (p 3)
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At the time of these changes in the social and ritual lives of
these communities, there were a number of other significant cultural
changes underway. By A.D. 1100 the use of the ball courts ends among
the Hohokam. There were also changes in how people buried their
dead and in the kinds of objects that were placed in the burial.
Prior to A.D. 1200, most Hohokam were cremated and their ashes gathered
up, placed into a ceramic vessel, and buried. After this period,
most people were buried as extended inhumations, often with one
or more vessels (possibly containing food) and other personal belongings
such as jewelry and their tools. We also see a gradual concentration
of previously dispersed populations into a few relatively large
communities structured around the central platform mounds. These
communities were typically located along major irrigation canals
or on the terraces above rivers. How these communities interacted
is currently the subject of considerable debate and study. Settlements
along the same irrigation system probably shared some level of social
and administrative hierarchy. There is limited evidence for regional
integration, and it appears to have been relatively informal.
Sometime during the later half of the 14th century A.D., the Hohokam
of the Phoenix Basin entered a period of social disruption and community
disintegration. There appear to be several causes including drought,
flooding, and warfare. Other areas, including the Tucson Basin,
were swept up in this breakdown and turmoil over the successive
generations. By A.D. 1400, the size of the Hohokam population had
decreased dramatically, and the settlements had shrunk in size and
were dispersed across the landscape once again.
During the subsequent Protohistoric Period, which extended to the
arrival (or “entrada”) of the Spanish in southern Arizona
during the closing years of the 17th century, there was considerable
change in both the social and material world of the native populations
of southern Arizona. The tradition of decorating pottery with painted
designs was largely lost. The ceramics become thin-walled plain
and red-slipped vessels with smoothed, often lightly polished, surface.
Although shell continued to be used for jewelry, only simple beads
and whole shell pendants were created. Houses were fairly ephemeral
brush structures, suggesting that settlements were short-lived and
the population fairly transient. The degree and nature of these
changes have led some archaeologists to suggest that the Hohokam
abandoned the region and that people from the south migrated into
the area prior to the arrival of the Spanish.
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