Aspects of land tenure in an ancient southwestern farming society in the Mimbres Valley, New Mexico.

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the origin and effects of land tenure practices in a prehistoric subsistence-level farming society in the American Southwest. Land tenure is viewed as a social response to overpopulation in a restricted environmental setting, enabling long-established families to retain exclusive rights to traditionally used farmland. As a consequence of instituting inheritance rules to cope with growing population and limited prime farmland, a landless class within the society will likely form and may introduce instability to the society as a whole. A review of several ethnographic examples reveals that under these conditions, the landless attempt to better their position by choosing from several potential solutions, including (1) bending social rules to inherit land, (2) migrating to the periphery of claimed land and establishing new land claims, (3) resorting to violence, or (4) leaving the society for wage labor elsewhere. This dissertation focuses on the formation of new communities in areas peripheral to primary zones of occupation and farming as an outcome of choosing to migrate. The ancient Mimbres people of southwestern New Mexico appear to have labored under these conditions during the Classic (Pueblo) period (A.D. 1000--1130), with resulting settlement patterns reminiscent of patterns of land tenure seen in the ethnographic examples. This research demonstrates that privatized property can originate in the absence of elite classes under the right environmental and social conditions, and that archaeologists may need to reconsider what constitutes a complex society.