"Building a pithouse"

ARIZONA: Introduction- Prehistoric Cultural Groups

There are several major prehistoric cultural groups of the Southwest: Anasazi, Sinagua, Hohokam, Salado, and Mogollon.  What all of these cultures have in common are as follows:

1.) Their earliest dwellings were pithouses, subterranean (usually circular or other rounded shapes) and roofed with poles and beams.  Through time, we find villages of pithouses eventually supplanted by single pueblo (rock and adobe) dwellings, then multi-roomed pueblos.  The architecture becomes even more elaborate with Ponderosa pine log supports, multi-storied units with plastered walls, and villages with these built into remodelled caves and ledges.  In some cultures (Southern Sinagua, for example), pueblos and pithouses coexist over time.  In most, pueblos take over.  A kiva is a large, subterranean pithouse used for ceremonial purposes and is thought to have evolved from the idea of the original pithouse dwelling, but is no longer used for day-to-day living.  This would make sense as it is a throwback to earlier times, symbolically tying more modern peoples back to the times of their ancestors and their origins.  Kivas coexist with pueblos in prehistoric villages and modern-day Pueblo villages.  There are definite stylistic differences in architecture between cultures. 

2.) All of these cultures started out as hunters/gatherers early on, but with the establishment of villages took to cultivating corn, beans, squash, cotton, and other native plants particular to their locations (such as amaranth and succulents such as agave and cacti).  Which culture did what depended on their specific geographical and climatic circumstances.  When things got tough, people would go back to hunting and gathering, and probably supplanted their usual diets with such on a regular basis anyway. 

3.) All of these cultures were potters, weavers, artists, and merchants/tradesmen, but they each had their own styles, methodologies, or levels of sophistication in each of these areas which differed from others.  There was extensive trade amongst all of these cultures, so they intermingled quite a bit and shared from each other.

4.) Regardless of the environments they selected as their homelands, there was a bad drought throughout the Southwest starting in the late 13th Century A.D., culminating in abandonment by most or all sites by around 1450 A.D.  Many sites were left way before this time, one by one, depending upon what was going on in each location.  Regardless of climatic conditions, there appears to be a fairly predictable pattern of abandonment of villages right after peaks of population growth, wherein area resources would have been strained or depleted.  Sometimes abandoned villages were reinhabited later by influxes of other groups of people searching for viable places to live.  There may have been other reasons for leaving one's homeland, such as strife, warfare, and disease, and there are clues of this type at specific sites.  For example, why would some people live in cliff dwellings made inaccessible by pulling ladders up with them when reaching their abodes which besides affording them safety, also gave them good views of their surroundings so that they could prepare for any eventuality and keep their stores of goods and food safe from others?  The Anasazi site I studied showed evidence of a fire through the village, and several individuals were placed on top of the kiva roof which also caught fire, collapsed, and incinerated these people instantly.

5.) Where did they all go and what did they become?  It is believed the vast majority of them eventually merged into what are known as the Pueblo peoples of today, such as the Hopi, Zuni, and others. The only large settlement of Sinagua (which may also have included a merging of other migrating Southwestern cultures) left in the 15th Century was Nuvakwetaqa, 40 mi. S.E. of Flagstaff on the Anderson Mesa.  This large, multi-storied pueblo was located along a natural migration route for many animals, possessed year-round springs, and had a great view of its surroundings.  Hopis, for example, still live in pueblos today, some on mesa-tops.

It is thought that the Hohokam people eventually became the Pima and/or Tohono O'odham of today, and it is unclear to me whether any of the Hohokam at all migrated with other cultures to become part of the Pueblo culture we are familiar with today.  Some of their cultural characteristics, and certainly the dramatic effects of their extensive trade network with the Sinagua saturated pre-Pueblo culture, however.

The Salado, appearing to have shared pottery styles with the Hohokam, and architectural characteristics with the Sinagua and the Hohokam, buried their dead as did the Sinagua and the Anasazi - NOT the Hohokam.

The Navajo are thought to have come to the Southwest much later, through migrations of people originally from Canada, as their language is Athabaskan in style.  Many Navajo, however, believe the lands, stories and ancient sites of the Pueblo are ancestral to them as well, though there are very clear differences today between many elements of Navajo and Hopi culture.  Throughout their history, the Navajo have been known to adopt other Native American cultures into their nation, including the Pueblo peoples.  At least in this respect, pre-Pueblo cultures can also be considered ancestral to the Navajo.