How the Pueblos Got Their Sprachbund

Pueblo societies comprise a culture area, and a zone of linguistic convergence or Sprachbund, that encompassed four distinct language families. Pueblo groups are also quite genetically homogeneous. The general forces promoting or diluting cultural differences across groups are defined and given a preliminary weighting through time for Pueblo societies. The Neolithic demographic transition and the hierarchical society transition (defined herein) contribute to homogeneity across groups derived from a single descent group, but create differences among groups derived from different descent groups. High mobility across communities and across regions contributes to cultural similarities across phylogenetically defined groups, as may adaptation to similar environments. Pronounced tendencies towards within-group conformity and linguistic purism were probably late (i.e., early first-millennium ad) developments in the Pueblo world.