Economies of Scale in Agricultural Production Among Post-Contact and Prehispanic Northern Rio Grande Pueblos

• Published in: Human ecology : an interdisciplinary journal 2023-10, Vol.51 (5), p.809-826
• Main Author: Cooper, Zachary J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural economics; Agricultural production; Agricultural research; Agricultural technology; Agriculture; Anthropology; Archaeology; Community size; Economies of scale; Environmental Management; Geography; Labor; Labor productivity; Land; land productivity; Land use; landscapes; Population growth; Population number; population size; Productivity; Rural communities; Social institutions; Social Sciences; Sociology
• ISSN: 0300-7839; 1572-9915
• DOI: 10.1007/s10745-023-00451-8

Archaeological approaches to agricultural production often assume a linear relationship between agricultural inputs and outputs, irrespective of community size and production level. They also often overlook the distinction among land productivity, labor productivity, and land utilization efficiency. In contrast, studies of recent agricultural economies typically identify nonlinear input–output relationships concerning land and labor productivity. I use scaling analysis to investigate the relationship between population and agricultural production over time in the Northern Rio Grande region of the U.S. Southwest. I present evidence that an economy of scale in land utilization has characterized Northern Rio Grande Pueblo communities from Prehispanic to recent times and identify trends in this relationship suggesting that the primary factor behind the increasing population size of Northern Rio Grande Pueblo communities was not improvements in technology per se but changes in the social institutions required for coordinated farming efforts on this landscape. My results suggest that studies of past agricultural economies could be improved by paying greater attention to nonlinear input–output relationships and emphasizing various factors, including land productivity, labor productivity, and land utilization efficiency.