Abstract
By reflecting on how our own perspectives influence the data we collect and the questions we ask, bioarchaeologists are positioned to move the approach to understanding humans into new areas. In this chapter, we examine social hierarchy at the height of the society identified as the “Chaco Phenomenon” in the San Juan Basin of the American Southwest (AD 900–1300). Traditionally, research on the development and maintenance of social complexity during this period has focused on the role of males, especially higher status or elite individuals. Females have often been relegated to the role of mother, laborer, or captive. However, gender roles in the past, like today, were fluid and relational. The health and status of the females from several archaeological sites (i.e., Black Mesa, La Plata, Kin Bineola, and Room 33 at Pueblo Bonito) are reanalyzed to highlight the complex and nuanced roles that both males and females likely played in these communities. This study interrogates the way that questions about the “Chaco Phenomenon” have been framed and what this implies about the kinds of data that have been collected and interpreted.
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Harrod, R., Stone, P.K. (2018). Mother, Laborer, Captive, and Leader: Reassessing the Various Roles that Females Held Among the Ancestral Pueblo in the American Southwest. In: Stone, P. (eds) Bioarchaeological Analyses and Bodies. Bioarchaeology and Social Theory. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71114-0_10
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