Ch.6: Chaco and Urban Genesis

URBAN GENESIS AT CHACO: Case Study of the Origin of Civilizations. Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6

6.2 Chaco as Theater State

Clifford Geertz' doctrine of the theater state best explains the nature of eleventh-century Chaco culture. According to Geertz, a new state is very likely to create or re-create a capital as a model of the cosmic and social order. The theater states of Southeast Asia often founded new capitals on undeveloped sites so that they could execute didactic, diagrammatic urban plans unimpeded by local precedent. The Chaco culture, however, seems to have remained centered at the site of its initial development. This meant, on the one hand, that they were constrained by precedent and by the formidable landscape of the canyon. On the other hand, it also meant that the Chacoans could build on existing work, and that they could use an already dramatic landscape to impress visitors in an effort to establish Chaco as Center.

The Chacoans 'remodeled' the canyon into a diagram of cosmic order so as to establish Chaco as the Exemplary Center of a newly-organized sociopolitical system. Very large-scale urban design was a necessary component to the consolidation of the primary urban state.