"Until recently, archaeologists have rarely studied prehistoric architecture as if it were an artifact comparable to pottery or stone tools. Following the premise that built space embodies social organization, Jason Shapiro takes a fresh look at architectural data from Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, a fourteenth-century site in the northern Rio Grande Valley of present-day New Mexico, in order to explore what it might reveal about people's social lives. Noticeable differences exist in the way that Ancestral Pueblo peoples organized space at Arroyo Hondo during its two periods of occupation, including a significant shift toward greater residential "privacy" during the later period. This pattern was no isolated phenomenon." "Comparing Arroyo Hondo with other sites, Shapiro shows similar changes for the contemporaneous pueblos of Tijeras and Puye as well as twentieth-century Acoma Pueblo. The shift from a more openly interconnected, "accessible" plan to a more restricted, spatially segregated plan may have marked a shift in Pueblo social organization - probably related to rapid population growth and immigration - that endured for centuries."--Jacket.

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