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Social Transformations and Regional Scales of Social Identity in the Cibola World (A.D. 1100-1325) [click here for more info]

On-going dissertation research:
This research is focused on the relationships between social transformations and collective social identification at broad geographic and demographic scales. Using archaeological data from the Cibola region of the North American Southwest across the Pueblo III to Pueblo IV transition (ca. A.D. 1100-1325), I explore changes in the process of social identification across a major period of demographic and social upheaval. This period was marked by a massive shift in population as the inhabitants of thousands of small hamlets aggregated into a small number of clustered villages and, eventually, into a few dozen nucleated towns. I assess the role of interaction and social identification in this transformation using insights from theoretical models developed by sociologists and political scientists focused on the development of social movements. I focus on three kinds of evidence; data relating to (1) settlement and community organization, (2) direct social interaction, and (3) the active expression of social identities through material culture. Initial results suggest that the Pueblo III to Pueblo IV transition represented a major expansion of the scale at which social identification was expressed. Newly developed social groups cross-cut patterns of frequent interaction among the inhabitants of the region established prior to the transformation.

This project is supported by a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (#09043134), a Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant (#09094295), by the School of Human Evolution & Social Change at Arizona State University, and by the Arizona State University Museum of Anthropology.

Peeples, Matthew A. Ceramic Technology and Social Distance across the Cibola World: A.D. 1150-1325. Poster presented at the 75th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology
[online version]		  
       
       
 

Population History of the Zuni Region across the Protohistoric Transition: Migration, Gene Flow, and Social Transformation

The construction of the protohistoric Zuni towns in the late 14th and early 15th centuries was marked by major changes in settlement, architecture, ceramic design/technology, and burial practices that suggest that the Zuni region was a destination for migrating populations from some of the areas to the south that were largely depopulated between1450-1540. In this paper, I explore the population history of the Zuni region from a biodistance perspective. Specifically, using methods for quantitative comparison of skeletal morphometric variation, I assess genetic evidence for immigration across the protohistoric transition. Further, I compare skeletal variation in the Zuni region with a number of other areas across the Southwest in order to identify potential regional scale patterns of gene flow related to population movement. This biogeographical perspective is particularly important because long distance population movement has frequently been implicated in many of the changes associated with the establishment of the protohistoric Zuni towns. The results presented here suggest that the protohistoric transition at Zuni involved substantial immigration, potentially from several sources across the Southwest, but that there was also a large local population. The history of population movement suggested by this analysis has further implications for considerations of many widespread changes occurring across the Southwest during the so called "lost century."

Peeples, Matthew A. 2010 The Zuni Region across the Lost Century. Paper presented at the 11th biannual Southwest Symposium in Hermosillo, Sonora, MX. Session title: AD 1450 to 1540: The Lost Century.		  
       
       
  Long Term Patterns of Settlement Movement along the Zuni River Drainage [click here for more info] 
with Greg Schachner

The Zuni region of New Mexico and Arizona has frequently been cited as an example of a region characterized by long term regional settlement stability. More recently, however, detailed studies of particular areas within the region have revealed substantial local variation in settlement through time. Using a large database of sites from all available full coverage surveys throughout the region, we attempt to integrate this picture of regional stability and local variation. We suggest that, although the region was continuously occupied throughout the prehistoric period, there were long term, patterned changes in the focal areas of settlement along the Zuni River through time.

Poster presented at the 2008 SW Symposium Meeting in Tempe, AZ [online version].		  
       
       
 

Population and Settlement in the Mimbres Region of New Mexico

Over the last several decades, numerous studies across the greater Mimbres region have documented environmental changes associated with the prehistoric occupation including the depletion of plant and animal species, stream down-cutting, and soil nutrient depletion. Population estimates for the middle Mimbres Valley, along with these changes, have previously been used to argue that population may have been at or near carrying capacity during the Classic Period (A.D. 1000-1130). In this study, using a large regional database of settlements, I derive population estimates for the most densely populated portions of the greater Mimbres region for the period from A.D. 1000-1450. By placing the Mimbres Valley in a broader spatial context, I identify important differences in the demographic histories of particular portions of the region as a whole. Additionally, a comparison of this regional scale population reconstruction with estimates of the agricultural potential suggests that population pressure, in a strict economic sense, was likely not a major factor driving settlement shifts and environmental degradation. This suggests that the primacy of population as an explanatory variable for the social and environmental changes noted in the region needs to be reevaluated.

This project is part of the NSF Biocomplexity project headed by Margaret Nelson.
Long-term Coupled Socioecological Change in the American Southwest and Northern Mexico

 
       
       
 

The Role of the Antebellum Black Press in the Political Mobilization and Empowerment of African Americans, 1830-1860 [click here for more info]

By the beginning of the Civil War, the African American newspaper had already proved to be an indispensable ally in the struggle for the rights of African Americans throughout the United States. In the antebellum period, as many as 100 African American newspapers were printed and distributed throughout the nation and beyond. The goal of this study is to delineate how and why the antebellum African American newspapers of the mid-nineteenth century became important as platforms of political agency, intended for those who were largely denied conventional means of participation within the United States government. In particular, I focus on four main avenues through which the African American newspapers were utilized to afford political agency to African Americans: (1) the material and rhetorical support of black suffrage, (2) the promotion and facilitation of public protest, (3) the promotion of material and moral elevation, (4) and the creation of a black national and historical identity.

Peeples, Matthew A.
2008. Creating Political Authority: The Role of the Antebellum Black Press in the Political Mobilization and Empowerment of African Americans. Journalism History 34(2):76-86. [PDF]

  
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