Organizational Variability in Early Aggregated Communities in Middle-Range Societies: An Example from the Kayenta Region of the American Southwest

Early aggregated communities are the result of individuals and families from geographically dispersed social networks coming together at a single geographic locale. In the process of this transition, individuals and families must find new ways to relate to one another and are constantly negotiating their positions in new, and highly dynamic, social orders. To facilitate this negotiation, villages, and families within villages, experiment with existing and new social mechanisms. The result can be considerable differences in the organization of villages within the same region and even houses within a village. This study examines this variability at two Tsegi-phase villages (Segazlin Mesa and Pottery Pueblo) in the Kayenta region of the American Southwest to better understand these processes.