A political economic perspective, which envisions exchange as an activity embedded in broader social, economic, and political institutions, provides the theoretical foundation for understanding the alternative roles that exchange played in small-scale societies that inhabited the region. By necessity, a contextual perspective, which emphasizes both spatial and temporal parameters, is employed to investigate the interrelationships that existed between exchange and broader realms of social life.

The Southern High Plains is a vast semiarid environment characterized by erratic climate conditions and incongruent resources distributions. Prior to A.D. 1250 the region was inhabited by small groups of mobile foragers. Except for the transfer of some high quality tool stone, evidence for exchange between these societies is extremely meager suggesting that important resources were obtained through residential mobility. The onset of the Middle Ceramic period around A.D. 1250 was marked by the sudden appearance of Plains Village tradition societies who occupied permanent settlements and practiced subsistence economies based on foraging and horticulture. Settlements of the period vary from single family homesteads to villages containing 250 people. The large numbers of habitation sites documented for the period indicate that the region experienced a dramatic increase in human populations at this time. Coinciding with these significant cultural changes, the Middle Ceramic period also witnessed the emergence of widespread exchange networks. This study examines this development and its meaning in small-scale societies of the region.

Durable goods obtained through exchange can be described in a number of ways including the distances which items were traded and their function or meaning in society. In this study, utilitarian items, particularly chipped stone tools produced from high quality materials, are the most abundant exchange items documented. These objects were regularly traded over distances of 100 to 300 km. Nonutilitarian items, including jewelry produced from marine shell and precious stone, smoking pipes, and elaborately decorated ceramics were also obtained from communities located 350 to 550 km away. Given the distances involved, the latter objects are assumed to represent status or prestige items. While nonlocal utilitarian items are widespread throughout the region, status items are notably concentrated at a few communities.

This study concludes that initially exchange was regional in scope and provided access to utilitarian items among recently settled populations. Although temporal trends are not well understood, exchange was later elaborated by a few communities and involved the procurement of utilitarian and nonutilitarian objects through long-distance trading expeditions to settlements outside the region. Importantly, this expansion was also accompanied by the appearance of other key developments including land tenure systems, intensified economic production, and regional trade centers. Altogether, these trends are interpreted as evidence for increasing social complexity and the emergence of local leaders who encouraged and organized these activities. Support for this interpretation is derived from the ethnographic record which demonstrates that the subsistence economy and exchange frequently provide important avenues by which emergent leaders distinguish themselves above other members of society. In this study exchange is seen as serving a dual role that simultaneously brought prestige to local leaders and enhanced the status and well-being of the communities they represented.