Deciphering the Organization of Production in Chaco Canyon

Abstract

This special section of American Antiquity contains 9 papers that address the organization of production in Chaco Canyon during the height of the "Chaco Phenomenon," a regional system that covered the northern part of the American Southwest between A.D. 900 and 1150. These papers are part of an effort to synthesize the National Park Service's Chaco Project, a large-scale research project undertaken during the 1970s and early 1980s. Our introductory paper provides a brief history of research in Chaco Canyon, an overview of the Chaco phenomenon, a summary of the Chaco synthesis project, and a synopsis of the other papers. The first four papers in this issue were written by experts on prehistoric economic systems who developed models of the operation of production and distribution in Chaco Canyon. The following four papers, by Chaco scholars, use data from the Chaco Project to evaluate the models presented in the initial papers. There is general agreement that Chaco was a place where people from the surrounding region gathered for participation in communal ceremonial events, including the building of the most striking element of the Chaco phenomenon--great houses. Production is seen as household-based, serving to finance these communal gatherings.