The case for schismogenesis between Late Developmental Northern Rio Grande and Chacoan communities in Northern New Mexico

Archaeologists have traditionally conceptualized culture areas and associated ethnic group boundaries as reflecting significant degrees of dissimilarity between “core” and “peripheral” cultural types. This dissimilarity is typically thought to correlate with gradual geographic isolation. However, an alternative model has been presented that underscores the importance of inter-group interaction to ethnic group formation through a process known as “schismogenesis”, or progressive differentiation. According to this model, societies define themselves through an absence of borrowing rather than through an absence of interaction. Here, we make a case for schismogenesis between Late Developmental Northern Rio Grande and Chacoan communities.

First, we compare architectural patterns between these communities. Then, we present the results of our neutron activation analysis and ceramic petrography from the Northern Rio Grande site of LA 835. Based on this evidence, we argue that the lack of quintessential Chacoan material traits among Late Developmental Northern Rio Grande communities is not due to isolation, but instead due to schismogenesis reflective of Northern Rio Grande resistance to the Chaco World. Finally, we discuss the implications of these results for how archaeologists currently define participation in the Chaco regional system as well as for models of ethnic group formation more broadly.