ABSTRACT

This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part presents the notion of scaler stress to account for aggregation in the Mesa Verde region and a methodological critique. It describes World Systems theory to be a useful model for understanding the processes of elite formation in the peripheries of largescale systems. The part argues that social ranking, elites, and complexity came about in the Southwest as a result of trade with Mesoamerica, and stresses the role of cultural mediators. It shows that home grown "big men" at places such as Chaco Canyon and Casas Grandes used their access to mesoamerican trade to break egalitarian limits on their power by changing the communities into stratified societies. Archaeologists have often taken a positively skewed data distribution as direct proof for elites and hierarchy in prehistory.