In many different cultures throughout history, humans have chosen to live and work cooperatively, arranging themselves into domestic corporate groups. However, these domestic corporate groups are not identical in their nature or operation. For instance, the ways in which communities organize their domestic corporate groups, manage access to property and resources, and accomplish daily tasks vary between cultures and over time, as people simultaneously adapt to and shape the world in which they live. In this research, I combine ethnographic and archaeological evidence to examine this variation in the nature and operation of domestic corporate groups, as well as how those groups change over time. I first assess cross-cultural variation in the nature and operation of domestic corporate groups, as well as changes in those groups over time by analyzing historical ethnographic data on thirteen different variables related to corporateness. To achieve a broad regional perspective on this variation, I examine villages in five different North American culture areas: members of the multi-tribal affiliation of the Haudenosaunee in the Eastern Woodland Area; several tribal groupings within the North Pacific Coast Area; the exemplar cultures of the Pawnee and the Mandan in the Plains Area; the exemplar culture of the Navajo in the Southwestern Area; and the village residential unit of Tzintzuntzan in the Nahua Area. Ethnographies of the Boasians form the foundation of this component of my research. From the ethnographic data, then, I develop a descriptive model for distinguishing between different organizational types of domestic corporate groups, as well as how they change through time. I also establish archaeological correlates for each of the organizational types in my model. Finally, I conduct a preliminary test of the appropriateness and sufficiency of a selection of these archaeological correlates. I analyze several aspects of village and household organization, including nondomestic community buildings, household clusters, storage facilities, and food preparation and consumption facilities for three Wendat archaeological sites in southern Ontario: the Late Middleport Alexandra Site in Toronto (AkGt-53; A.D. 1390-1420), the Late Protohistoric Molson Site in Barrie (BcGw-27; A.D. 1580-1600), and the Late Protohistoric to Early Historic Mantle Site in Whitchurch-Stouffville (AlGt-334; A.D. 1596-1618). Ultimately, through its combination of ethnographic and archaeological evidence, my research supports the value of and potential for identifying variation in domestic corporate groups using archaeological evidence. It is my hope that my research will provide a useful foundation for future research on further refining our understanding of variation and change in domestic corporate groups and how they may be identified archaeologically.
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