Taking a bioarchaeological approach this book examines the Ancestral Pueblo culture living in
the Four Corners region of the United States during the late Pueblo I through the end of the
Pueblo III period (AD 850-1300). During this time a vast system of pueblo villages spread
throughout the region creating what has been called the Chaco Phenomenon named after the large
great houses in Chaco Canyon that are thought to have been centers of control. Through a
bioarchaeological analysis of the human skeletal remains this volume provides evidence that
key individuals within the hierarchical social structure used a variety of methods of social
control including structural violence to maintain their power over the interconnected
communities.
