For this project, I use qualitative textual analysis to compare the differences and/or similarities between (1) how the former residents of Tempe’s historic San Pablo barrio (1872-1955) conveyed their sense of place, meaning, and displacement in oral and written histories and (2) how Tempe’s Anglo residents at the time of San Pablo’s occupation and dissolution conveyed their sense of the place, meaning, and displacement of San Pablo in newspaper articles. I have located my investigation of any perceived or lacking disparities between how these two groups perceived San Pablo’s place and meaning within the context of San Pablo’s dissolution and the displacement of its residents in the mid 1950s. As I follow the process through which some communities are able to suppress, take over, and erase others from dominant narratives and political decisions without any perceived consequences, I will bring to the foreground the emotional impact of place and displacement in order to highlight how the former residents of ‘erased’ communities make sense of and respond to their displacement.

The present analysis sought to determine the relationship between Middle Woodland (ca. 2000-1700 BP) and Late Woodland (ca. 1700-1100 BP) mortuary practices in the Lower Illinois Valley. It applies alternative mortuary theories to elucidate larger social implications and the relationship between these practices. This was accomplished by first reconstructing a Late Woodland mortuary feature from the Helton Site in the Lower Illinois Valley (HN 20-36). The reconstructed feature was then assessed to identify if Middle Woodland mortuary practices were continuous with those of the Late Woodland. Lastly, the feature was interpreted in accordance with processualist, post-processualist and individual identity theories on mortuary behavior to determine the larger social implications of the funerary practices associated with the feature. From this analysis, it was concluded that Late Woodland mortuary practices exhibited elements of both continuity with, and change from their Middle Woodland predecessors. Further, the theoretical interpretations reveled that Late Woodland social systems existed as an evolved and reorganized extension of those systems that were present during the Middle Woodland period.

In the proposed project I simultaneously and reflexively identify and characterize social boundaries in the archaeological record by examining material culture distributions in novel ways to re-assess the scale of the Verde Confederacy, a proposed regional-scale multi-settlement alliance in Late Prehistoric central Arizona. I focus on boundaries between entities larger than villages, but smaller than regions or culture areas. I propose three innovations to better accomplish these goals. First, unlike previous conceptualizations of social boundaries as monolithic, I argue that they are better conceived of as a heterogeneous, multi-faceted phenomenon. Second, I investigate social boundaries by examining multiple lines of evidence. Previous researchers have tended to focus on one category of data at the expense of others. Third, I associate boundaries with relational and categorical collective social identification. An alliance requires regular collective actions including communication and coordinated action between large groups. These actions are most likely to emerge among groups integrated by relational networks who share a high degree of categorical homogeneity.

I propose a plain ware ceramic provenance model. Seven reference groups represent ceramic production in specific geographic areas. The reference groups are mineralogically and geochemically distinct, and can be visually differentiated. With this provenance model, I reconstruct the organization of utilitarian ceramic production and exchange, and argue that plain ware distribution is a proxy for networks of socially proximate friends and relatives. The plain ware data are compared to boundaries derived from settlement patterns, rock art, public architecture, and painted ceramics to characterize the overall nature of social boundaries in Late Prehistoric central Arizona.

Three regions in the study area are strongly integrated by relational networks and categorical commonality. If alliances existed in Late Prehistoric central Arizona, they were most likely to emerge at this scale. A fourth region is identified as a frontier zone, where internal connections and shared identities were weaker. As seen among the League of the Iroquois, smaller integrated entities do not preclude the existence of larger social constructs, and I conclude this study with proposals to further test the Verde Confederacy model by searching for integration at a broader spatial scale.

This study frames research on board games within a body of anthropological theory and method to examine the long-term social changes that effect play and mechanisms through which play may influence societal change. Drawing from ethnographic literature focusing on the performative nature of games and their effectiveness at providing a method for strengthening social bonds through grounding, I examine changes in the places in which people engaged in play over the course of the Bronze Age on Cyprus (circa 2500¬–1050 BCE), a period of increasing social complexity. The purpose of this research is to examine how the changes in social boundaries concomitant with emergent complexity were counteracted or strengthened through the use of games as tools of interaction.

Bronze Age sites on Cyprus have produced the largest dataset of game boards belonging to any ancient culture. Weight and morphological data were gathered from these artifacts to determine the likelihood of their portability and to identify what type of game was present. The presence of fixed and likely immobile games, as well as the presence of clusters of portable games, was used to identify spaces in which games were played. Counts of other types of artifacts found in the same spaces as games were tabulated, and Correspondence Analysis (CA) was performed in order to determine differences in the types of activities present in the same spaces as play.

The results of the CA showed that during the Prehistoric Bronze Age, which has fewer indicators of social complexity, gaming spaces were associated with artifacts related to consumption or specialty, heirloom and imported ceramics, and rarely played in public spaces. During the Protohistoric Bronze Age, when Cyprus was more socially complex, games were more commonly played in public spaces and associated with

artifacts related to consumption. These changes suggest a changing emphasis through time, where the initiation and strengthening of social bonds through the grounding process afforded by play is more highly valued in small-scale society, whereas the social mobility that is enabled by performance during play is exploited more commonly during periods of complexity.