Early agriculture in the Mogollon (AD 200--1200): Material manifestations of labor organization and agricultural intensification

The goal of this thesis was to identify patterns of archaeological remains related to the different forms of labor organization practiced by early agriculturalists. As people become increasingly dependent on agriculture, the methods and strategies of agricultural production change. An ethnographic survey of subsistence farmers from around the world was compiled to identify the conditioning variables related to agricultural intensification and the labor practices associated with different levels of agricultural investment. Variables from the physical and social environments, which limit and condition subsistence practices, were also identified through the ethnographic survey. The material manifestations of the various forms of labor organization were then sought among a sample of previously recorded and excavated sites in the Mogollon region.; In the Mogollon region, a variety of subsistence and settlement strategies were employed throughout the Pithouse and Early Pueblo periods (AD 200--1000). We know that many of the prehistoric populations in the Mogollon region were sustained by a "mixed-economy," and that the region was internally variable throughout these periods. The sample of archaeological sites encompasses a range of subsistence strategies, from part-time mobile farmers to intense, agriculturally dependent communities. The Mogollon region is also environmentally diverse, providing a variety of conditions the prehistoric inhabitants adapted to through their subsistence strategies. Expectations regarding the form of labor organization employed were generated, and then tested.; Changes in the Mogollon communities were evident in the archaeological patterns, specifically food processing and storage practices changed; concomitant changes were also made in community organization and integration. This investigation concludes that as agricultural productivity increases through intensification, the subsistence system must be reorganized and the reorganization of labor can be seen in the archaeological record.