EMAP (2008) Social Transformation and Its Human Costs in the Prehispanic Southwest
Creators: name: Hegmon, Michelle
name: Peeples, Matthew
name: Kinzig, Ann P.
name: Kulow, Stephanie
name: Meegan, Cathryn
name: Nelson, Margaret
Publisher: name: (:unav)
Year: 2008
Subjects: subject: Southwest New Mexico
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/6959/southwest-new-mexico
subject: Palomas Drainage
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/76006/palomas-drainage
subject: Animas Drainage
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/76008/animas-drainage
subject: Seco Drainage
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/76007/seco-drainage
subject: Eastern Mimbres
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/9/eastern-mimbres
subject: Rio Grande Drainage
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/3881/rio-grande-drainage
subject: Classic Mimbres Period
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/temporal-keyword/14/classic-mimbres-period
subject: Mimbres Reorganization Phase
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/temporal-keyword/5535/mimbres-reorganization-phase
subject: Black Mountain Phase
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/temporal-keyword/5711/black-mountain-phase
subject: Early Mogollon Pithouse Period
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/temporal-keyword/22/early-mogollon-pithouse-period
subject: Late Mogollon Pithouse Period
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/temporal-keyword/39/late-mogollon-pithouse-period
subject: Mogollon
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/culture-keyword/34/mogollon
subject: Mimbres
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/culture-keyword/108/mimbres
subject: Domestic Structure or Architectural Complex
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-type/251/domestic-structure-or-architectural-complex
subject: Shell
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/14/shell
subject: Wood
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/15/wood
subject: Ceramic
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/1/ceramic
subject: Chipped Stone
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/2/chipped-stone
subject: Dating Sample
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/3/dating-sample
subject: Fauna
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/4/fauna
subject: Ground Stone
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/7/ground-stone
subject: Macrobotanical
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/10/macrobotanical
subject: Mineral
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/12/mineral
subject: Data Recovery / Excavation
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/investigation-type/5/data-recovery-excavation
subject: Research Design / Data Recovery Plan
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/investigation-type/9/research-design-data-recovery-plan
subject: Systematic Survey
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/investigation-type/12/systematic-survey

description: Change is inevitable, but some changes and transformations are more dramatic and fraught with suffering than others. Resilience theory suggests the concept of a “rigidity trap” as an explanation for these differences. In rigidity traps, a high degree of connectivity and the suppression of innovation prolong an increasingly rigid state, with the result that the eventual transformation is harsh. Three archaeological cases from the U.S. Southwest (Mimbres, Mesa Verde, and Hohokam) and new methods for assessing transformations and rigidity are used to evaluate this concept. They reveal the expected association between the severity of transformation and degree of rigidity, suggesting that a rigidity trap contributed to the Hohokam decline, which included significant human suffering. Possible causes of rigidity, with implications for today’s world, are explored. [Keywords: U.S. Southwest, archaeology, social transformation, resilience theory, ecological theory]