Hohokam exchange and early Classic period organization in central Arizona: Focal villages or linear communities?

Settlement pattern data in the lower Salt River valley of central Arizona, near Phoenix, have led to different models of Hohokam political community organization during the early Classic period (ca. A.D. 1150-1300). The "focal village" model posits political communities centered on a single large village with monumental architecture surrounded by smaller settlements. The "linear community" model envisions an elongated arrangement integrating populations distributed along the routes of irrigation canals. Each model has implications for the nature of cooperation within and between settlement clusters and the degree to which large-scale irrigation management influenced the development of Hohokam community organization. In this analysis, ceramic sourcing studies are used to outline networks of interaction to examine the different models. Our results provide some evidence for a cross-cutting patchwork of geographically dispersed social groups which fits most comfortably within the linear community model.