Ch. 1: Theory of Urban Genesis

URBAN GENESIS AT CHACO: Case Study of the Origin of Civilizations Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6

1.2 The Argument

Clearly the Chaco Culture had reorganized into some form of State by the late eleventh century. The geographic isolation of Chaco, and the uniqueness of Chacoan design, suggest that the cultural transformation into a State occurred independent of outside models. The Toltec civilization based in the Valley of Mexico already existed, and the Hopewell Culture was forming at the same time near present-day St. Louis. But the form and pattern of Chacoan development does not resemble either of these contemporaneous civilizations. Based on the available evidence, the Chaco Culture is one of less than a dozen known incidences of 'Primary Urban Genesis'--the independent transformation of a locally-native culture into a State.

The Chaco Phenomenon may reveal a great deal about the process of Urban Genesis, because of the total collapse and sudden abandonment of the Chaco region. Normally urban societies survive, change, and grow rapidly, obliterating traces of early stages of development. Successful systems mobilize ever-greater amounts of labor. Buildings get remodeled for new uses, or cannibalized for materials. Thus the process of cultural development obscures the earliest phases of most States. But the Chacoan State was only able to maintain power for perhaps 160 years. The surviving remains still include many traces of a preexisting non-urban culture, and a sequence of transitional built forms. Not only are the material remains intact, but they have also been thoroughly documented by archaeologists. This is an extraordinary record of a culture that collapsed just after transforming from a non-urban society to an urban State.

However, the Chaco Culture never developed a system of writing. Furthermore there is no clear connection between Chaco and succeeding cultures in the region, a problem discussed at the end of Chapter Two. Therefore, design-analysis is one of the few available means of analyzing Chacoan cultural development. This analysis is framed within the theoretical model of Urban Genesis that will be explained in this Chapter.

Design is the intentional manipulation of space, form, symbols, and the experience of them. Public design is the expenditure of material effort to represent social values, and reflect social ideals. The psychological impact of public design is lasting and cumulative: it is a form of enculturation that verges on propaganda. The social class which controls public design influences social experience and the formation of social identity. In essence, that class designs the stage upon which the history of the culture is played out. Without a written record we cannot reconstruct the particular quality of these experiences at Chaco. But we can observe the amount and type of effort the Chacoan leadership expended on public design, and perhaps glimpse its purpose.

A careful study of Chaco reveals a great deal about the culture. Large building campaigns demonstrate their ability to mobilize and coordinate labor. Differentiation of building types marks an evolution of cultural institutions, and an increase in cultural complexity. Chacoan site design, and the solar-lunar observatory at Fajada Butte, are material evidence of a sophistication that is otherwise difficult to gauge in this resource-poor environment. The jump in scale of Chacoan design, from scattered sites to a basin-wide road system, shows an increasing degree of regional control. The may have resulted road system from the need to extract resources from the periphery, but it was also probably intended to reinforce Chaco's position as the center of that culture's world. The alignment of the roads, and the role of similar roads among the Pueblo today suggest that at least some parts of the system served as avenues for spirits as well as for mortals; indeed, the road system as a whole may have been designed as a diagrammatic expression of cosmic order made manifest upon the earth.

The Chaco Culture is discussed in detail in Chapters Four and Five. In the final Chapter we consider the types of cultural systems that could have produced the material found at Chaco. Furthermore, cultural parallels are examined in order to speculate about the character of Chacoan society.