Children in Mimbres Pithouse Society

AbstractChildren were active participants in past village life and reconstructing their activities and social roles can provide important insights into domestic and economic dynamics at archaeological sites. In this paper, we use data from two excavated pithouse sites in the Mimbres region of southwestern New Mexico and data from cross-cultural studies of children’s activities to explore children’s roles and contributions to Mimbres pithouse society. This work seeks to build on work being done on children and childhood in other regions. Our data show that children were active and productive participants at these sites and their roles extended beyond just economic production.Los niños participaron activamente en la vida antigua de la aldea y la reconstrucción de sus actividades y roles sociales puede proporcionar información importante sobre la dinámica doméstica y económica dentro de los sitios arqueológicos. En este documento, utilizamos la información de dos sitios pithouses (con casas semi-subterraneas) excavados en la región de Mimbres en el suroeste de Nuevo México y datos de estudios interculturales de las actividades infantiles para explorar los roles y las contribuciones que los niños tuvieron dentro de la sociedad pithouse en la región Mimbres. Este trabajo busca adicionar sobre el trabajo que se está realizando sobre los niños y la infancia en otras regiones. Nuestros datos muestran que los niños eran participantes activos y productivos en estos sitios y que sus roles se extendían más allá de solo una producción económica.KEYWORDS: Mimbreschildrenlearning frameworksUS southwest AcknowledgmentsWe thank the many students and volunteers who helped with these projects, especially volunteers from the Grant County Archaeological Society. We thank the Nature Conservancy for granting permission to excavate at La Gila Encantada. Finally, thanks to three anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments on a previous draft of this article.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Many of the pottery vessels with depictions of children are from private collections with limited to no provenience information, so only general inferences can be made from them.2 Burials examined as part of UNLV’s work at the site were done under a burial permit from the State of New Mexico with engagement of relevant tribal groups.Additional informationFundingFunding for fieldwork at the Harris site was provided in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation [#1049434].