Moving into Pueblos
In the Mesa Verde area of the ancient North American Southwest, living patterns changed in the thirteenth century, with large numbers of people moving into large communal dwellings called pueblos, often constructed at the edges of canyons, especially on the sides of cliffs. Abandoning small extended-family households to move into these large pueblos with dozens if not hundreds of other people was probably traumatic. Few of the cultural traditions and rules that today allow us to deal with dense populations existed for these people accustomed to household autonomy and the ability to move around the landscape almost at will. And besides the awkwardness of having to share walls with neighbors, living in aggregated pueblos introduced other problems. For people in cliff dwellings, hauling water, wood, and food to their homes was a major chore. The stress on local resources, especially in the firewood needed for daily cooking and warmth, was particularly intense, and conditions in aggregated pueblos were not very hygienic.
Given all the disadvantages of living in aggregated towns, why did people in the thirteenth century move into these closely packed quarters? For transitions of such suddenness, archaeologists consider either pull factors (benefits that drew families together) or push factors (some external threat or crisis that forced people to aggregate). In this case, push explanations dominate.
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