ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the potential social and behavioral implications behind acts of purposeful item destruction, and describes attributes distinctive to accidental, natural, and intentional breaks. It presents a framework for evaluating broken ground stone items, some of which impart important information about social processes. The intentional breaking or destruction of things has multiple levels of meaning for those involved, and is a complex act invoking power, meaning, and social action. Breakage prohibits an item from functioning in the future as originally designed. This is apparent even without considering the social contexts of breakage. Archaeological projects in central and southern Arizona have produced thousands of broken artifacts. Palettes were intentionally broken at the settlements of Sunset Mesa and Julian Wash in southern Arizona, and Haught Ranch in central Arizona. Ethnographic analogy is the framework for the interpretations of intentionally broken ground stone items.
