ABSTRACT
One of the most obvious first steps in sampling on the community level is to sample the remains lying on the surface of the ancient community. The barrio constitutes an organizational unit at the subcommunity level; each barrio in a village has a series of communal or ceremonial activities which it plans and carries out relatively independently of other barrios. The sampling program at Tierras Largas showed that, during any one period, the village was composed of a series of 8—12 household clusters, separated by courtyards or open work areas 20—40 m across. It is possible, however, that even small hamlets of 8—12 households were subdivided into what might very tentatively be called “courtyard groups”. Not only was the segregation of the cemetery and the higher-status residence no greater than that between ordinary households, but there is a good chance that the precise location of the higher-status residence within the community was a matter of no great consequence.
