Field Houses, Villages, and the Tragedy of the Commons in the Early Northern Anasazi Southwest
Author(s)
Kohler, Timothy A.
Abstract
The appearance of field houses and villages in the early northern Anasazi Southwest is interpreted as containing information concerning inclusiveness of land ownership or control. Early northern Anasazi villages probably practiced patterns of resource control much like those documented historically in many pueblos, where agricultural lands were frequently controlled at an atomistic level (by individuals or households) so long as fields were in use, but remained communal property in theory and could be reallocated to other members of the community. The appearance of field houses may be an attempt to limit access to previously free and unregulated lands and the resources thereon in response to resource scarcity. This scarcity, in turn, may be the result of overexploitation of such lands, in part through shifting cultivation. The general process of overexploitation of commons leading either to their centralized regulation or to privatization has been described by Hardin (1968) as the “tragedy of the commons.”
