Prehistoric histories of Hohokam kin groups

Authors

• Bradley E. Ensor, Eastern Michigan University

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2018

Department/School

Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology

Publication Title

Time and History in Prehistory

Abstract

As described in the editors’ introduction, problematizing history may resolve the disjunction between long-term narratives of prehistory and short-term narratives of agency, relationality and identity. This chapter conceptualizes ‘history’ as a post-processual theoretical perspective and ‘prehistorical’ as methods to produce and analyze data. Furthermore, it maintains that relationality and identity are best understood through kinship. Prehistorical archaeological methods for inferring kinship practices, and operationalizing time as chronology, provided a long-term history of agency, relationality, and identity among the Hohokam of the U.S. Southwest (Ensor 2013a). Embodied in ancestral spaces, Hohokam kin groups idiosyncratically manipulated relationality and identities under historically contingent social contexts. Through these conceptualizations, history and prehistory are compatible for achieving long-term narrations of agency, relationality and identity.

Comments

B. E. Ensor is a faculty member in EMU's Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology.

Recommended Citation

Ensor, B. E. (2018). Prehistoric histories of Hohokam kin groups. In S. Souvatzi, A. Baysal, & E. L. Baysal (Eds.), Time and history in prehistory (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315531854-10