The Chaco connection: Evaluating Bonito-style architecture in outlier communities

Because architecture shapes and is shaped by human actions and perceptions, architectural variability has the potential to provide information about r elationships among prehistoric social groups. This study examines communica tive and enculturative information contained in Bonito-style architecture c onstructed in Chaco Canyon and outlying communities during the late elevent h century A.D. Does the appearance of Bonito-style architecture at outliers constitute direct involvement on the part of a centralized, Chacoan entity or could local people have been emulating Bonito-style architecture they s aw at Chaco or in neighboring communities? These questions have implication s for existing models of Chacoan social organization. To investigate, a com parative architectural analysis uses data from 61 great houses in 55 outlie r communities. Analysis is based on the premise that outlier similarity sho uld reflect a unified, direct Chacoan source for Bonito-style architecture, and diversity should reflect the converse. Because highly visible, externa l architectural characteristics can be emulated, five internal, low-visibil ity great-house architectural attributes were selected for comparison. Resu lts indicate substantial diversity is contained within the Chacoan world. A variety of relationships probably existed between outlier communities and Chaco Canyon, and a range of explanatory models is necessary. Bonito-style architecture is more likely to be associated with a struggle to legitimate social power than with spontaneous, cooperative communal activity. Competit ive emulation may account for the appearance of Bonito-style architecture i n outlier communities toward the local end of the outlier spectrum. (C) 199 9 Academic Press.