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Field Houses, Villages, and the Tragedy of the Commons in the Early Northern Anasazi Southwest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Timothy A. Kohler
Timothy A. Kohler*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-4910
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Abstract

The first man, who after enclosing a piece of ground, took it into his head to say, this is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. How many crimes, how many wars, how many murders, how many misfortunes and horrors, would that man have saved the human species, who pulling up the stakes or filling up the ditches should have cried to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are lost, if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong equally to us all, and the earth itself to nobody!

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1967 [1755]:211-212)

The appearance of field houses and villages in the early northern Anasazi Southwest is interpreted as containing information concerning inclusiveness of land ownership or control. Early northern Anasazi villages probably practiced patterns of resource control much like those documented historically in many pueblos, where agricultural lands were frequently controlled at an atomistic level (by individuals or households) so long as fields were in use, but remained communal property in theory and could be reallocated to other members of the community. The appearance of field houses may be an attempt to limit access to previously free and unregulated lands and the resources thereon in response to resource scarcity. This scarcity, in turn, may be the result of overexploitation of such lands, in part through shifting cultivation. The general process of overexploitation of commons leading either to their centralized regulation or to privatization has been described by Hardin (1968) as the "tragedy of the commons."

Resumen

Resumen

Se propone que la aparición de puestos agrícolas y aldeas en etapas tempranas de la historia de los Anasazi del norte dentro del suroeste de los Estados Unidos contiene información acerca de la posesión y control de la tierra. Las aldeas tempranas de los Anasazi del norte probablemente practicaban patrones de control de recursos similares a los documentados históricamente para varios pueblos, entre quienes las tierras agrícolas eran frecuentemente controladas a un nivel atomístico (por individuos o grupos domésticos) mientras los campos se encontraban en uso, pero permanecían siendo propiedad comunal a nivel teórico y podían ser reasignados a otros miembros de la comunidad. La aparicón de puestos agrícolas puede ser un intento de limitar acceso a tierras y recursos previamente libres y sin regular en respuesta a una escasez de recursos. A su vez, esta escasez puede ser el resultado de la sobreexplotación de tierras, en parte a través del sistema de agricultura itinerante. El proceso general de sobreexplotación de las tierras comunales llevando a su regulación centralizada o a su privatización ha sido descripto por Hardin (1968) como la "tragedia de la propiedad comunal."

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 57 , Issue 4 , October 1992 , pp. 617 - 635
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1992

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