Toward Common Ground: Racing as an Integrative Strategy in Prehistoric Central Arizona

Throughout the Southwestern United States and Mesoamerica, indigenous peoples have used running and racing as means of religious expression, environmental control, personal sacrifi ce, and community cohesion. In such contexts , the physical location of racing w as often unimportant, and manufactured facilities were relatively rare. In the Perry Mesa region of Central Arizona, ho wever, constructed racetracks were highly formalized and elaborated. Along with their associated plazas, they represent the only recognized form of communal architecture on Perry Mesa. We study these features with the goal of better understanding the behaviors and beliefs of the people who liv ed along the Middle Agua Fria and Verde rivers prehistorically and how their communities fi t into the surrounding social landscape. Our data suggest that rapid aggregation from disparate origins led to the abdication of dissimilar ritual architecture and a subsequent focus on racing and feasting, ritual activities probably familiar to each group. We argue that concentration on shared ritual and the avoidance of dissimilarity allowed for the emergence of a new identity in a time of dramatic social change