During the Early Agricultural period (2100 BC–AD 50), preceramic farmers in the Sonoran Desert invested considerable labor in canal-irrigated field systems while remaining very residentially mobile. The degree to which they exercised formal systems of land tenure, or organized their communities above the household level, remains contested. This article discusses the spatial and social organization of Early Cienega–phase settlements in the Los Pozos site group, an Early Agricultural site complex located along the Santa Cruz River in southern Arizona. At Los Pozos, the formal spatial organization of seasonal farmsteads suggests that despite continued residential mobility, multihousehold lineages maintained distinct territories. Enduring “house groups”—likely lineal groups—are associated with disproportionately large cemeteries, suggesting the revisitation of ancestral territory through occupational hiatuses. However, variability in the formality and permanence of Early Cienega–phase settlements throughout the region indicates a flexible continuum of occupational mobility. These higher-order affiliations were only expressed in persistent settlements near highly productive farmland, where the relative priority of households over improved land might be contested.

在早期农业时期（公元前 2100 年至公元 50 年），索诺兰沙漠的陶瓷前农民在运河灌溉田地系统中投入了大量劳动力，同时保持住所的流动性。他们在多大程度上实行正式的土地保有权制度，或者在家庭层面之上组织社区，仍然存​​在争议。本文讨论了洛斯波索斯遗址群中早期谢内加阶段聚落的空间和社会组织，洛斯波索斯遗址群是位于亚利桑那州南部圣克鲁斯河沿岸的一个早期农业遗址群。在洛斯波索斯，季节性农庄的正式空间组织表明，尽管持续的居住流动性，多户家庭仍保持着不同的领地。持久的“家族群体”（可能是直系群体）与不成比例的大型墓地相关，这表明通过职业中断重新审视祖先的领地。然而，整个地区早期谢内加阶段定居点的形式和持久性的变化表明职业流动性的灵活连续性。这些更高阶的隶属关系仅在高产农田附近的持久定居点中表现出来，在那里，家庭相对于改良土地的相对优先权可能会受到争议。