ABSTRACT
Few would quibble with the observations that the archaeological record of large pueblos in the American Southwest is complicated, and that segments of this complicated record result from increasing social and political complexity. A methodological issue central to the disagreement is the extent to which a complicated pueblo archaeological record directly reflects socio-political complexity. This chapter examines characteristic of the archaeological record from large, late pueblos of the American Southwest—the positively skewed distribution. The highly skewed distribution is the most common distribution of non-metrical archaeological data. Data from complex societies can be displayed as a frequency pyramid, the production of such a display from archaeological data is not indicative of a social or political hierarchy. One of the most commonly encountered examples of the skewed distribution is a plot of sites by size classes. The archaeological record of Grasshopper Pueblo is unusual in that apparent systemic inventories of nonperishable, domestic equipment are found on a large number of room floors.
