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- All Subjects: Trade
- Creators: Ackroyd, William
Description
The Hohokam of central Arizona left behind evidence of a culture markedly different from and more complex than the small communities of O'odham farmers first encountered by Europeans in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries A.D. Archaeologists have worked for well over a century to document Hohokam culture history, but much about Pre-Columbian life in the Sonoran Desert remains poorly understood. In particular, the organization of the Hohokam economy in the Phoenix Basin has been an elusive and complicated subject, despite having been the focus of much previous research. This dissertation provides an assessment of several working hypotheses regarding the organization and evolution of the pottery distribution sector of the Hohokam economy. This was accomplished using an agent-based modeling methodology known as pattern-oriented modeling. The objective of the research was to first identify a variety of economic models that may explain patterns of artifact distribution in the archaeological record. Those models were abstract representations of the real-world system theoretically drawn from different sources, including microeconomics, mathematics (network/graph theory), and economic anthropology. Next, the effort was turned toward implementing those hypotheses as agent-based models, and finally assessing whether or not any of the models were consistent with Hohokam ceramic datasets. The project's pattern-oriented modeling methodology led to the discard of several hypotheses, narrowing the range of plausible models of the organization of the Hohokam economy. The results suggest that for much of the Hohokam sequence a market-based system, perhaps structured around workshop procurement and shopkeeper merchandise, provided the means of distributing pottery from specialist producers to widely distributed consumers. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the results of this project are broadly consistent with earlier researchers' interpretations that the structure of the Hohokam economy evolved through time, growing more complex throughout the Preclassic, and undergoing a major reorganization resulting in a less complicated system at the transition to the Classic Period.
ContributorsWatts, Joshua (Author) / Abbott, David R. (Thesis advisor) / Barton, C Michael (Committee member) / Van Der Leeuw, Sander (Committee member) / Janssen, Marcus (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The North American Free Trade Agreement was passed by the U.S. Congress in November 1993. The United States had decided that a regional trade approach would be more beneficial than bilateral trade with its neighbors. This move accepted Mexico as an equal economic partner with the United States and Canada despite their economic deficiencies. The NAFTA agreement came into effect on January 1, 1994. Canada, Mexico, and the United States agreed to eliminate tariffs on roughly ninety-nine percent of internationally traded goods by the end of 2004. The agreement was also significant because the three nations took a big step in further liberalizing Foreign Direct Investment policies. NAFTA resulted in what is today a $19 trillion regional market with over 470 million consumers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that six million U.S. jobs depend on trade with Mexico and another eight million jobs depend on trade with Canada. As seen, economic interests clearly dominated the NAFTA debate on all fronts. There still were other domestic political interests that further pushed the United States to seek regional integration with Canada and Mexico. Drugs, energy, pollution, and the threat of American jobs as a result of Mexico’s low wages were all major issues considered in the United States at the time. The issues noted above can be closely linked to the United States’ national security interests. Policy-makers and treaty negotiators constantly connected the passage of this agreement to the long-term interests of the United States. For NAFTA to have a chance in the first place, all operational concerns had to have been resolved first. The governing structure for management of the activities that fall under NAFTA’s umbrella was a huge prerequisite. Additionally, separate side agreements with Canada and Mexico had to be negotiated so that the they would offset any future problems NAFTA might create for the United States. Although a challenge, it all came together perfectly and the passage was successfully implemented. Taking everything into consideration, the United States should stray way from its’ isolationist ways and pursue a regional agreement like NAFTA for the betterment of all North Americans.
ContributorsIvanov, Martin (Author) / Ackroyd, William (Thesis director) / Rivero, Tony (Committee member) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05