8 The Dynamics of Social Networks in the Late Prehispanic US Southwest

This chapter conducts social network analysis on two case studies from the late prehispanic US Southwest. It takes a diachronic perspective in order to look at network dynamics over a 200-year period (ad 1200 to 1400). The case studies chosen are areas where, through independent data, extensive migration has been demonstrated and is widely accepted. The analyses pertain to three specific topics of archaeological interest: (1) first-comer advantage within a social landscape of migration; (2) the relationship of spatial to social centrality; and (3) node persistence or resilience over time. The chapter focuses on two geographically circumscribed areas of central and south-eastern Arizona — the San Pedro Valley and the Tonto Basin — which have been intensively studied by archaeologists over the past two decades. Although both areas saw periods of migration, the outcomes were very different. Because of the temporal control allowed by decades of archaeological research in the south-west, including tree-ring dating, the 200-year time span could be divided into 50-year ‘snapshots’ to look at changes over time.