Abstract
Casas Grandes, or Paquimé, is located in northwestern Chihuahua, Mexico, although it is one of the pueblo-style cultures that are best known from the adjacent southwestern U.S. At its apogee (ca. A.D. 1200–1450), Casas Grandes has been characterized as the largest and most complex prehistoric community in the puebloan world. It is further famous both as the center of one of the major interaction systems of the region, as well as a link between the cultures of Mesoamerica and those of the U.S. Southwest. Despite its acknowledged status as one of late prehistoric North America's few indigenous complex societies, the Casas Grandes polity has been so little studied that most aspects of its size, structure, level of centralization, and mode of operation remain obscure. The writers' work in Chihuahua has been designed to remedy this situation. In contrast to the original and highly influential interpretation that has prevailed for the last 25 years, the work reported here argues that the Casas Grandes polity, like its Chacoan and Hohokam counterparts of the adjacent southwestern U.S., existed at an intermediate level of sociopolitical complexity, so that it was not able to exert a uniform hegemony even over its near neighbors. Envisioned instead is a less comprehensive, less centralized situation of irregular control in a politically unstable context.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Abrams, E. M., and Bolland, T. W. (1999). Architectural energetics, ancient monuments, and operations management. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 6: 263–292.
Anderson, D. G. (1994). Factional competition and the political evolution of mississippian chiefdoms in the southeastern United States. In Brumfiel, E. H., and Fox, J. W. (eds.), Factional Competition in the New World, Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 61–76.
Arnold, J. E. (1996). Understanding the evolution of intermediate societies. In Arnold, J. E. (ed.), Emergent Complexity: The Evolution of Intermediate Societies, International Monographs in Prehistory, Ann Arbor, pp. 1–12.
Blanton, R. E. (1978). Monte Albán: Settlement Patterns at the Ancient Zapotec Capital, Academic Press, New York.
Blanton, R. E., Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. M., and Peregrine, P. N. (1996). A dual-process theory for the evolution of Mesoamerican civilization. Current Anthropology 37: 1–14.
Bradley, R. J. (1993). Marine shell exchange in northwest Mexico and the Southwest. In Ericson, J. E., and Baugh, T. G. (eds.), The American Southwest and Mesoamerica: Systems of Prehistoric Exchange, Plenum, New York, pp. 121–158.
Brand, D. D. (1935). The distribution of pottery types in northwest Mexico. American Anthropologist 37: 287–305.
Brand, D. D. (1943). The Chihuahua Culture area. New Mexico Anthropologist 6: 115–158.
Brand, D. D. (1944). Archaeological relations between north Mexico and the Southwest. In Anonymous (ed.), El Norte de México y el Sur de los Estados Unidos, Tercer Reunion de Mesa Redonda Sobre Problemas Antropológicas de México, Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, México, D. F., pp. 199–203.
Braniff Cornejo, B. (1986). Ojo de Agua, Sonora, and Casas Grandes, Chihuahua: A suggested chronology. In Mathien, F. J., and McGuire, R.H. (eds.), Ripples in the Chichimec Sea: New Considerations of Southwestern-Mesoamerican Interactions, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, pp. 70–80.
Burger, R. L. (1992). Chavin and the Origins of Andean Civilization, Thames and Hudson, London.
Cameron, C. M., and Toll, H. W. (2001). Deciphering the organization of production in Chaco Canyon. American Antiquity 66: 5–13.
Cobb, C. R., Maymon, J., and McGuire, R.H. (1999). Feathered, horned, and antlered serpents: Mesoamerican connections with the Southwest and Southeast. In Neitzel, J. E. (ed.), Great Towns and Regional Polities in the Prehistoric American Southwest and Southeast, The Amerind Foundation and the University of New Mexico Press, Dragoon and Albuquerque, pp. 165–182.
Crown, P. L. (1994). Ceramics and Ideology: Salado Polychrome Pottery, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Crown, P. L., and Judge, W. J. (1991). Chaco and Hohokam: Prehistoric Regional Systems of the American Southwest, School of American Research, Santa Fe.
Crumley, C. L. (1976). State systems of settlement. American Anthropologist 78: 58–69.
Cruz Antillón, R., and Maxwell, T. D. (1999). The Villa Ahumada site: Archaeological investigations east of Paquimé. In Schaafsma, C. F., and Riley, C. L. (eds.), The Casas Grandes World, The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, pp. 43–53.
Dean, J. S., and Ravesloot, J. C. (1993). The chronology of cultural interaction in the Gran Chichimeca. InWoosley, A. I., and Ravesloot, J. C. (eds.), Culture and Contact: Charles C.Di Peso's Gran Chichimeca, The Amerind Foundation and The University of New Mexico Press, Dragoon and Albuquerque, pp. 83–104.
DeAtley, S. B., and Findlow, F. J. (1982). Regional integration of the northern Casas Grandes frontier. In Beckett, P. H., and Silverbird, K. (eds.), Mogollon Archaeology: Proceedings of the 1980 Mogollon Conference, Acoma Books, Ramona, CA, pp. 263–278.
De Marrais, E., Castillo, L. J., and Earle, T. (1996). Ideology, materialization, and power strategies.Current Anthropology 37: 15–32.
Di Peso, C.C. (1974). Casas Grandes:AFallen Trading Center of the Gran Chichimeca, vols. 1û3, The Amerind Foundation and Northland Press, Dragoon and Flagstaff, AZ.
Di Peso, C.C., Rinaldo, J.B., and Fenner, G. J. (1974). Casas Grandes:AFallen Trading Center of the Gran Chichimeca, vols. 4û8, The Amerind Foundation and Northland Press, Dragoon and Flagstaff, AZ.
Douglas, J.E. (1995).Autonomy and regional systems in the late prehistoric southern Southwest.American Antiquity 60: 240–257.
Doyel, D. E. (1976). Salado cultural development in the Tonto Basin and Globe-Miami areas, Central Arizona. The Kiva 42: 5–16.
Earle, T. (1991). Chiefdoms: Power, Economy, and Ideology, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Earle, T. (1997). How Chiefs Come to Power: Political Economy in Prehistory, Stanford University Press, Palo Alto.
Earle, T. (2001). Economic support of Chaco Canyon society. American Antiquity 66: 26–35.
Emerson, T. E. (1997). Cahokia and the Archaeology of Power, The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
Feinman, G. M. (1992).Anoutside perspective on Chaco Canyon. In Doyel, D. E. (ed.), Anasazi Regional Organization and the Chaco System, Anthropological Papers No. 5, Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Albuquerque, pp. 177–182.
Feinman, G. M., and Neitzel, J. (1984). Too many types: An overview of sedentary prestate societies in the Americas. In Schiffer, M. B. (ed.), Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, Vol. 7, Academic Press, New York, pp. 39–102.
Fish, S. K. (1999). How complex were the Southwestern Great Town's polities? In Neitzel, J. (ed.), Great Towns and Regional Polities in the Prehistoric American Southwest and Southeast, The Amerind Foundation and the University of New Mexico Press, Dragoon and Albuquerque, pp. 45–58.
Fish, P. R., and Fish, S. K. (1994). Southwest and Northwest: Recent research at the juncture of the United States and Mexico. Journal of Archaeological Research 2: 3–44.
Flannery, K. V. (1968). The Olmec and the valley of Oaxaca: A model for interregional interaction in formative times. In Benson, E. P. (ed.), Dumbarton Oaks Conference on the Olmec, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, pp. 79–111.
Gibbon, G. (1984). Anthropological Archaeology, Columbia University Press, New York.
Goldstein, P.G. (2000). Exotic goods and everyday chiefs: Long-distance exchange and sociopolitical development in the South-Central Andes. Latin American Antiquity 11: 355–362.
Haggett, P., Cliff, A. D., and Frey A. E. (1977). Locational Analysis in Human Geography, 2nd edn., Wiley, New York.
Hagstrum, M. (2001). Household production in Chaco Canyon society. American Antiquity 66: 47–55.
Hastorf, C. A. (1990). One path to the heights: Negotiating political inequality in the Sausa of Peru. In Upham, S. (ed.), The Evolution of Political Systems: Sociopolitics in Small-Scale Sedentary Societies, Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 146–176.
Hayden, B. (1998). Practical and prestige technologies: The evolution of material systems.Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 5: 1–56.
Helms, M. W. (1992). The political value of imports. In Schortman, E. M., and Urban, P. A. (eds.), Resources, Power, and Interregional Integration, Plenum, New York, pp. 157–174.
Herold, L. C. (1965). Trincheras and Physical Environment Along the Rio Gavilan, Chihuahua, Mexico, Publications in Geography #65-1, Department of Geography, University of Denver, Denver.
Hodder, I. R. (1979). Simulating the growth of hierarchies. In Renfrew, C., and Cook, C. L. (eds.), Transformations: Mathematical Approaches to Culture Change, Academic Press, New York, pp. 117–144.
Johnson, G. A. (1977). Aspects of regional analysis in archaeology. Annual Review of Anthropology 6: 479–508.
Johnson, G. A. (1980a). Rank-size convexity and system integration: A view from archaeology.Economic Geography 56: 234–247.
Johnson, G. A. (1980b). Spatial organization of early Uruk settlement systems. In Anonymous (ed.), L'Archeologie de l'Iraq, Colloques Internacionaux du C.N.R.S., No. 508, Centre Nacional de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, pp. 233–263.
Kantner, J. (1996). Political competition among the Chaco Anasazi of the American Southwest.Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 15: 41–105.
Kelley, J. H., Stewart, J. D., MacWilliams, A. C., and Neff, L. C. (1999). A West Central Chihuahuan perspective on Chihuahuan culture. In Schaafsma, C. F., and Riley, C. L. (eds.), The Casas Grandes World, The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, pp. 63–77.
Kidder, A. V., Cosgrove, H. S., and Cosgrove, C. B. (1949). The Pendelton Ruin, Hidalgo County,NewMexico. Contributions to American Anthropology and History,Vol. 10,No. 50, Carnegie Institution, Washington, DC.
LeBlanc, S. A. (1989). Cultural dynamics in the southern Mogollon area. In Cordell, L. S., and Gumerman, G. J. (eds.), Dynamics of Southwest Prehistory, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC., pp. 179–208.
Lekson, S. H. (1984). Dating Casas Grandes. The Kiva 50: 55–60.
Lekson, S. H. (1999a). The Chaco Meridian: Centers of Political Power in the Ancient Southwest, AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, CA.
Lekson, S. H. (1999b). Great Towns in the Southwest. In Neitzel, J. E. (ed.), Great Towns and Regional Polities in the Prehistoric American Southwest and Southeast, The Amerind Foundation and the University of New Mexico Press, Dragoon and Albuquerque, pp. 3–22.
Lekson, S. H. (1999c). Was Casas a pueblo? In Schaafsma, C. F., and Riley, C. L. (eds.), The Casas Grandes World, The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, pp. 84–92.
Lightfoot, K.G. (1984). Prehistoric Political Dynamics: A Case Study from the American Southwest, Northern Illinois University Press, DeKalb.
Lister, R.H. (1946). Survey of archaeological remains in northwestern Chihuahua. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 2: 443–452.
McCluney, E. B. (1965). The excavation of the Joyce Well site, Hidalgo County, New Mexico, Menuscript on file, School of American Research, Santa Fe.
McGuire, R. H. (1980). The Mesoamerican connection in the Southwest. The Kiva 46: 3–38.
McGuire, R. H. (1986). Economies and modes of production in the prehistoric Southwestern Periphery. In Mathien, F. J., and McGuire, R. H. (eds.), Ripples in the Chichimec Sea: New Considerations of Southwestern-Mesoamerican Interactions, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, pp. 243–269.
McGuire, R. H. (1989). The Greater Southwest as a periphery of Mesoamerica. In Champion, T. (ed.), Centre and Periphery: Comparative Studies in Archaeology, Unwin Hyman, London, pp. 40–66.
McGuire, R.H. (1993). CharlesC. Di Peso and the Mesoamerican connection. InWoosley, A. I., and Ravesloot, J.C. (eds.), Culture and Contact: CharlesC. Di Peso's Gran Chichimeca, The AmerindFoundation andThe University ofNewMexico Press, Dragoon and Albuquerque, pp. 23–38.
Minnis, P. E. (1984). Peeking under the Tortilla Curtain: Regional interaction and integration on the northeastern periphery of Casas Grandes. American Archeology 4: 181–193.
Minnis, P. E. (1988). Four examples of specialized production at Casas Grandes, northwestern Chihuahua. The Kiva 53: 181–194.
Minnis, P. E. (1989). The Casas Grandes polity in the international four corners. In Upham, S., Lightfoot, K., and Jewett, R. (eds.), The Sociopolitical Structure of Prehistoric Southwestern Societies, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, pp. 269–306.
Minnis, P. E., Whalen, M. E., Kelley, J. H., and Stewart, J.D. (1992). Prehistoric macaw breeding in the North American Southwest. American Antiquity 58: 270–276.
Neitzel, J. E. (ed.). (1999). Great Towns and Regional Polities in the Prehistoric American Southwest and Southeast, The Amerind Foundation and the University of New Mexico Press, Dragoon and Albuquerque.
Nelson, B. A., Martin, D. L., Swedlund, A. C., Fish, P. R., and Armelagos, G. J. (1994). Studies in disruption: Demography and health in the prehistoric Southwest. In Gumerman, G. J., and Gell-Mann, M. (eds.), Understanding Complexity in the Prehistoric Southwest, Proceedings Vol. XVI, Santa Fe Institute, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, pp. 59–112.
Pauketat, T. R. (1994). The Ascent of Chiefs: Cahokia and Mississippian Politics in Native North America, The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
Pauketat, T. R. (1998). Refiguring the archaeology of Greater Cahokia. Journal of Archaeological Research 6: 45–89.
Paynter, R.W. (1982). Models of Spatial Inequality: Settlement Patterns in Historical Archaeology, Academic Press, New York.
Paynter, R.W. (1983). Expanding the scope of settlement pattern analysis. In Moore, J. A., and Keene, A. S. (eds.), Archaeological Hammers and Theories, Academic Press, New York, pp. 233–275.
Peregrine, P. N. (2001). Matrilocality, corporate strategy, and the organization of production in the Chacoan World. American Antiquity 66: 36–46.
Phillips, D. A., Jr. (1989). The prehistory of Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico. Journal of World Prehistory 3: 373–401.
Plog, F., Upham, S., and Weigand, P. (1982). A perspective on Mogollon-Mesoamerican interaction.In Beckett, P., and Silverbird, K. (eds.), Mogollon Archaeology: Proceedings of the 1980 Mogollon Conference, Acoma Books, Ramona, CA, pp. 227–238.
Price, T. D., and Feinman, G. M. (eds.). (1995). Foundations of Social Inequality, Plenum, New York.
Pumain, D. (1997). City-size dynamics in urban systems. In McGlade, J., and van der Leeuw S. E. (eds.), Time, Process, and Structured Transformation in Archaeology, Routledge, New York, pp. 97–117.
Rappaport, R. A. (1971). Ritual, sanctity, and cybernetics. American Anthropologist 73: 59–76.
Ravesloot, J. C. (1988). Mortuary practices and social differentiation at Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico. Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona, No. 49, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Rice, G. E. (2000). Hohokam and Salado segmentary organization: The evidence from the Roosevelt platform mound study. In Dean, J. S. (ed.), Salado, The Amerind Foundation and the University of New Mexico Press, Dragoon, AZ, and Albuquerque, pp. 143–166.
Santley, R. S., and Alexander, R. T. (1992). The political economy of core-periphery systems. In Schortman, E. M., and Urban, P. A. (eds.), Resources, Power, and Interregional Integration, Plenum, New York, pp. 23–50.
Sayles, E. B. (1936). An Archaeological Survey of Chihuahua, Medallion Papers No. 22, Globe, Arizona.
Scarborough, V., and Wilcox, D. (eds.). (1991). The Mesoamerican Ballgame, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Scarry, J. F. (1996). The nature of Mississippian societies. In Scarry, J. F. (ed.), Political Structure and Change in the Prehistoric Southeastern United States, University Press of Florida, Gainesville, pp. 12–22.
Scarry, J. F. (1999). How great were the Southeastern polities? In Neitzel, J. E. (ed.), Great Towns and Regional Polities in the Prehistoric American Southwest and Southeast, The Amerind Foundation and the University of New Mexico Press, Dragoon and Albuquerque, pp. 59–74.
Schaafsma, C. F., and Riley, C. L. (1999). Introduction. In Schaafsma, C. F., and Riley, C. L. (eds.), The Casas Grandes World, The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, pp. 3–11.
Schmidt, R. H., and Gerald, R. E. (1988). The distribution of conservation-type water control systems in the Northern Sierra Madre Occidental. The Kiva 53: 165–180.
Schortman, E. M., and Urban, P. A. (eds.). (1992). Resources, Power, and Interregional Integration, Plenum, New York.
Sebastian, L. (1992). The Chaco Anasazi: Sociopolitical Evolution in the Prehistoric Southwest, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Smith, C. A. (1976). Regional economic systems: Linking geographical models and socioeconomic problems. In Smith, C. A. (ed.), Regional Analysis: Vol. 1, Social and Economic Systems, Academic Press, New York, pp. 3–68.
Spencer, C. S. (1993). Human agency, biased transmission, and the cultural evolution of chiefly authority. Journal of Anthropological Research 12: 41–74.
Spencer, C. S. (1997). Evolutionary approaches in archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Research 5: 209–264
Stein, G. J. (1998). Heterogeneity, power, and political economy: Some current research issues in the archaeology of Old World complex societies. Journal of Archaeological Research 6: 1–44.
Trubitt, M. D. (2000). Mound building and prestige goods exchange: Changing strategies in the Cahokia chiefdom. American Antiquity 65: 669–690.
Upham, S. (1982). Politics and Power: An Economic and Political History of theWestern Pueblo, Academic Press, New York.
Upham, S. (ed.). (1991). The Evolution of Political Systems: Sociopolitics in Small-Scale Sedentary Societies, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Whalen, M. E. (1994). Turquoise Ridge and Late Prehistoric Residential Mobility in the Desert Mogollon Region, Anthropological Paper No. 118, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
Whalen, M. E., and Minnis, P. E. (1996a). Ball courts and political centralization in the Casas Grandes region. American Antiquity 61: 732–746.
Whalen, M. E., and Minnis, P. E. (1996b). The context of production in and around Paquimé, Chihuahua, Mexico. In Fish, P. R., and Reid, J. J. (eds.), Interpreting Southwestern Diversity: Underlying Principles and Overarching Patterns, Anthropological Research Papers No. 48, Arizona State University, Tempe, pp. 173–184.
Whalen, M. E., and Minnis, P.E. (1996c). Studying complexity in northern Mexico:The Paquimé regional system. In Meyer, D. A., Dawson, P. C., and Hanna, D. T. (eds.), Debating Complexity: Proceedings of the 26th Chacmool Conference, Archaeological Association and the Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, pp. 161–168.
Whalen, M. E., and Minnis, P. E. (1999). Leadership at Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico. In Mills, B. J. (ed.), Alternative Leadership Strategies in the Prehistoric Southwest, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 168–179.
Whalen, M. E., and Minnis, P. E. (2001a). Architecture and authority in the Casas Grandes area, Chihuahua, Mexico. American Antiquity 66: 651–669.
Whalen, M. E., and Minnis, P.E. (2001b). Casas Grandes and Its Hinterland: Prehistoric Political Organization in Northwest Mexico, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Wilcox, D. R. (1986). A historical analysis of the problem of Southwestern-Mesoamerican connections. In Mathien, F. J., and McGuire, R.H. (eds.), Ripples in the Chichimec Sea: New Considerations of Southwestern-Mesoamerican Interactions, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, pp. 9–44.
Wilcox, D. R. (1991). Changing contexts of pueblo adaptations, A.D. 1250û1600. In Spielmann, K. A. (ed.), Farmers, Hunters, and Colonists: Interactions Between the Southwest and the Southern Plains, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 128–154.
Wilcox, D. R. (1995). A processual model of Charles C. Di Peso's Babocomari site and related systems. In Reyman, J. E. (ed.), The Gran Chichimeca: Essays on the Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Northern Mesoamerica, Avebury Press, Aldershot, U.K., pp. 281–319.
Wilcox, D. R. (1996). Pueblo III people and polity in relational context. In Adler, M. A. (ed.), The Prehistoric Pueblo World, A.D. 1150û1350, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 241–254.
Wilcox, D. R. (1999).Aperegrine view of macroregional systems in the north American Southwest, A.D. 750û1250. In Neitzel, J. E. (ed.), Great Towns and Regional Polities in the Prehistoric American Southwest and Southeast, The Amerind Foundation and the University of New Mexico Press, Dragoon and Albuquerque, pp. 115–142.
Wilcox, D. R., and Shenk, L. O. (1977). The Architecture of the Casa Grande and Its Interpretation, Arizona State Museum Archaeological Series 115, Tucson.
Wolf, E. R. (1982). Europe and the People Without History, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Woosley, A. I., and Olinger, B. (1993). The Casas Grandes ceramic tradition: Production and interregional exchange of Ramos Polychrome. InWoosley, A. I., and Ravesloot, J.C. (eds.), Culture and Contact: Charles C. Di Peso's Gran Chichimeca, The Amerind Foundation and The University of New Mexico Press, Dragoon and Albuquerque, pp. 105–132.
Zipf, G. K. (1949). Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort, Addison-Wesley, Cambridge, MA.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Whalen, M.E., Minnis, P.E. The Casas Grandes Regional System: A Late Prehistoric Polity of Northwestern Mexico. Journal of World Prehistory 15, 313–364 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013187605760
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013187605760