ABSTRACT
The concept of Hohokam culture has been heavily shaped by remains and investigations in the so-called core or heartland in the adjacent valley segments of the lower Salt and Gila Rivers. The term “periphery” applied to the immense geographical remainder of the Hohokam tradition, carries an implication of lesser cultural intensity, or less developed and imitative spheres. The strength of contrastive analyses depends upon systematic data. Lack of representative observations for regions and relevant sociopolitical units is the major drawback to the investigation of complexity or any other processual inquiries for noncore Hohokam. Stone agricultural field features are present in both upper bajada and riverine contexts. The variety of overall artifact classes is duplicated, including groundstone and shell. Nonsubsistence specialization is documented only in broad patterns for the Marana community. Vertical differentiation in the Marana community can be systematically approached from the perspective of settlement patterns.
